SB 355 
.S55 
Copy 1 




Irrigation 
FruitGrowing 



A Western Book 
for Western Planters 



Compiled by 0. D. Shields Loveland, Colo. 








for 

Western 9lanter6 



PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION FOR PROPAGATING, PLANTING, 

GROWING AND CARING FOR FRUIT, SHADE AND 

ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SMALL FRUITS 

ADAPTED TO THE WEST. 



:> 



"Cempiled bn ^7 £). Mields, %6veland, 'Cdcrade 



WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM 

WENDELL PADDOCK, M. S., Botany and Horticulture. 
Agricultural Colleg-e, Ft. Collins, Colorado. 

C. P. GILLETTE, M. S., Zoology and Entomology. 
Agricultural College, Ft. Collins, Colorado. 

S. ARTHUR JOHNSON, M. S., Zoology and Entomology. 
Agricultural College, Ft. Collins, Colorado. 



Copyright, 1905 — First Edition. 



Many of the cuts used in the illustration of this volume were se- 
cured from the experiment station of the Agricultural College at Fort 
Collins, Colorado. 



FOR SALE AT OFFICE OF O. D. SHIELDS, 
Lock Box 165. Loveland, Colorado. 

.Taper Bound, $1.00; Cloth Bound, $1.25. 



JUBHABY 9t CONGRE 
■f wo OoBlas ReceiviQ 

5^0V 25 !9Q? 

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INTRODUCTORY 



THE INTENTION of tKe writer of this edition is to place 
in the hands of Farmei-s and Fruit Growers a volume cov- 
ering the ground so fully and plainly that any person can 
from its pages get the information necessary to successfully 
grow an orcharwd. 

Twenty-five years' continuous and active work as a nur- 
seryman in the so-called arid regions of irrigated lands, 
together with the help of the best experts along the different 
topics, fits the volume to become the authority of persons not 
acquainted with existing conditions. And the various pitfalls 
and failures of the inexperienced man may be overcome by read- 
ing and carefully following out its prescribed methods and 
rules. 

New conditions, requiring new treatments, are always aris- 
ing. And it is the writer 's intention to issue supplements, each 
time that occasions may require, so as to keep the small grower 
of fruit fully posted. The same will apply to new varieties as 
they -appear, and are tested, so that an intelligent treatise may 
be written of them. 



INDEX 

Page 

Apple, How to Propagate 51 

" Tree Enemies 85 

How to Grow It 48 

Uses of 49 

" Pruning of 128 

Asparagus Culture 23 

Blackberry and Raspberry, Anthracnose of 76 

" " " " " Laying Down and Covering 20 

" " " Orange Rust 74 

Blight, Caution Regarding 92 

Budding 51 

When to do 52 

Bulbs, Planting and Caring for 40 

Codling Moth, Bands for 98 

How to Fight 77 

Chrysanthemum Culture 39 

Canning and Preserving Fruit 43 

Climbing Vines, Ornamental 39 

Carbon Bisulphide Fuma 116 

Common Plant Lice 103 

Districts, Classified, with Varieties Best Adapted 13 

" " Western 15 

" " Central 16 

Southern 14 

" " Northern 13 

Fungus Diseases 73 

Farm Drainage 139 

" Paints, Cheap 124 

Fruit, Putting Up for Exhibition, with Formulas. 46 

Trees, Mechanical Injuries to Same 69 

Lands Adapted to Growing 7 

Insect Enemies of Small 103 

Gathering, Storing and Marketing 31 

Grafting 53 

Top 57 

" Tongue 53 

Wax 58 

Splice 53 

Root 54 

Grasshopper, Habits and Remedies 112 

Destruction of 114 

" " Eggs of 113 

Grape Culture 23 



INDEX. 5 

J>a_crQ 

Heeling in Trees 10 

Introductory 3 

Insects Classified 80 

Insecticides 94 

" " Application of 104 

Irrigation, Winter 31 

" " Growing Fruit Without 29 

" " Trees and Vines 28 

Laying Out Grounds 8 

Orchards, Winter Covering 18 

Pear Tree Enemies 98 

Plum Tree Enemies 99 

Peach Tree Enemies 100 

" " Laying Down '. 62 

Poisons to Use 79 

Plant Lice and Remedies 93 

Preparation of Soil 7 

Pruning of Fruit and Ornamental Trees 19 

Plants for House Culture 41 

Preserving 45 

Potato, How to Grow 122 

Flea Beetle 117 

Fungus, Diseases of 119 

Pumps ; 105 

Rhubarb, Cultivation of 23 

Ripening and Picking Cherries 35 

Roses and Climbing Vines 37 

Remedies and Formulas 81 

Rabbits, To Protect from ' 26 

To Remedy Evil Done by 27 

Strawberry Culture 22 

Leaf Roller 88 

Spraying, When to Do 77 

" How to Do 109, 79 

" Number of Times to Do 79 

Shade Tree Enemies 89 

Shade and Ornamental Trees 27 

Sterilization Mixture 92 

Scions, How to Cut 59 

Seeds, Amount Required to Acre 12 

Trees of Denver 132 

Time Required to Cook Fruit for Canning 44 

Table of Distances to Plant Different Varieties — Number to Acre 11 

Transplanting Large Trees 120 

Season for 10 

Vinegar, How Made 126 

Wind Breaks -. . 28 

Whole or Piece Root 59 



GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 



LANDS ADAPTED TO FRUIT GROWING AND HOW TO PREPARE 

THEM. 

LANDS which are naturally drained are most desirable, be- 
cause they are warm and allow early cultivation. If natu- 
ral drainage does not exist, then tile and other methods of 
drainage must be used. 

Drainage not only carries off the surplus of water, but loos- 
ens the subsoil, thereby causing it to retain moisture better in 
time of drouth. An orchard cannot be successfully grown upon 
lands not well drained. 

As to quality of soils : Good, deep soils are to be pre- 
ferred, but others can be made to grow an orchard success- 
fully. Mistakes are often made in locating an orchard, by giv- 
ing all attention to appearances of surroundings, regardless of 
conditions as to soil and drainage. Or to be more explicit, a man 
will often locate his orchard, from which he expects to derive 
his fruit for home consumption, with no thought of anything 
excepting the improvement of the landscape surrounding his 
buildings. This is landscape gardening, not fruit growing. 

If the soil need manuring, so far as the trees are concerned, 
surface manuring, after the trees are planted, is preferable. 
Young trees are injured by the roots coming in contact with 
lumps of manure. 

The ideal fruit land is a loam coarse enough to be easily 
cultivated, and fine enough to prevent the too free access of air, 
and too rapid descent of water. 

PREPARATION OF SOIL. 

In examining fruit trees and fruits, marked differences in 
the same varieties are noted. In some cases trees are small and 



8 IRRIGATlOiN FRUIT GROWINC. 

fruit small and poorly flavored. In others, trees large, fruit 
large and excellent. 

The grower of the first kind named thinks, usually, he has 
been humbugged by nurserymen. The grower of the second 
exhibits his fruit and secures awards. 

In the First Case : Poor soil, poor cultivation, hard ground, 
allowing weeds to grow, necessarily produces small, feeble trees 
and small, poor-flavored fruit. 

In the Second Case : Good cultivation and thinning of crop 
must produce large, fine-flavored fruit. 

Land intended for an orchard must be secure from danger 
of being flooded in wet seasons and becoming water-soaked be- 
neath the surface. Plow the surface to a depth of seven or 
eight inches and follow with a subsoiler which loosens to an ad- 
ditional depth of seven or eight inches. (Or dig large holes, 
three times the size necessary to set trees ; for ordinary trees 
eighteen to twenty-four inches in depth and thirty to thirty-six 
inches in diameter, and set. trees in the loose earth used to fill 
the hole to proper size for tree ; plant four to six inches' deeper 
than they grew in nursery; and by the time the roots have 
grown to the extremities of the hole so made, they will have 
strength to push their way into the harder surrounding earth.) 
To work manure to that depth it must first be spread on the sur- 
face evenly, after the whole has been subsoiled : then harrow to 
break it fine, and mix with top soil, and then turned under by 
a thorough trench plowing. This should be done in the fall, and 
again plowed in the spring, and your land is ready for its 
trees. 

LAYING OUT GROUNDS. 

Procure a quantity of wooden pins. Take heavy cord, long 
enough to reach across land to be planted, and measure distance 
upon it that trees are to be spaced, and with needle pass through 
cord a red yarn and tie at each point a tree is to be set. Then 
stretch along one side of the field the distance from fence that 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 9 

first row is to be planted. Place weights upon cord at in^ 
tervals to keep it in position. Drive in one of the pegs at each 
place marked by red yarn. When this is done one row will bo 
completed. 

Then take same cord and mark end of field at right angles 
to one completed in same way. Lastly mark remaining side. 

To fill up hollow square stretch cord successively between 
corresponding stakes on opposite side, and continue until the 
whole is completed. If the work is carefully done, every stake 
will be in range. 



^ 



O 



\J 



Next take a strip of board about eight feet long and six 
inches wide and cut a notch in one side of the middle just large 
enough to let in the stem of the tree. Bore a hole in each end 
exactly equal distance from this notch. Then whenever a tree 
is to be planted, place the middle notch around the peg and drive 
other pegs in the holes at the ends. ( See cut. ) Then take up the 
board, leaving these two pegs; dig the hole, replace the board, 
and set tree in the notch. Proceed in this way until the whole 
orchard is set, and every tree will stand exactly where the pegs 
stood, and if the staking is properly done, every tree will range 
in all directions. 

Dig holiss with sufficient room to receive the roots of trees 
without crowding, and of such a depth that the trees can be 
planted six inches deeper than they grew in the nursery. 

Before setting tree, trim from it all broken and bruised 
roots. Place loose soil in bottom of hole, setting tree upon it. 
Carefully with hands spread out the roots and work dirt around 
them, packing firmly all earth except surface layer, then fill hole 
two or three inches above the level of ground surrounding it, to 
allow for settling. 

Trees received from a distance and injured from drying, as 



10 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

they frequently are, to more or less extent, should have roots 
immersed in a bed of mud, and the whole tree buried in moist 
earth for a few days before planting. They wall gradually ab- 
sorb moisture and resume their freshness. 

A tree out of ground is like a fish out of water. And long 
shipments are detrimental, and oft-times the trees are injured to 
such an extent that although they may live, yet they never make 
a really good tree or a tree that is long-lived. Especially is this 
true when the trees come from a considerable distance East, as 
their seasons are later, and in order to get trees before the ground 
freezes they must be stripped of their leaves and taken up while 
the wood is yet soft and not matured or ready to go into winter 
quarters. This applies to fall shipments. 

SEASON FOR TRANSPLANTING. 

Trees may be removed from the ground at any time be- 
tween the cessation of growth in the fall and the swelling of the 
buds in the spring. It is the best plan to dig all trees in the fall, 
and heel them in at a convenient place of suitable conditions. 
There is a growing sentiment that the planter should get his 
trees from the nurseryman in the fall of the year. 

HEELING IN TREES. 

Select a dry, clean, mellow piece of ground, with no grass 
near to harbor mice, dig a trench, lay sloping and cover well 
around the roots so as to exclude the air as much as possible, 
and then cover the entire tree with earth. Have the roots of the 
trees covered to a depth of from eighteen to twenty-four inches. 
Fill in carefully all the interstices around the roots. You will 
then have your trees on hand to plant early in the spring as early 
as condition of soil and air permit,. Transplanting may be done 
in the early spring, at any time that the ground is free from 
frost, and the air is above freezing. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT aROWINiG. 11 

Always shorten the head or branches of trees to correspond 
with its roots. It is impossible in digging up trees to avoid 
leaving many of the roots in the ground. And the tree is set that 
way will be unable for a time to feed its leaves and branches. A 
part of the tops, therefore, must be cut off, to restore the bal- 
ance corresponding with the loss of roots. This may be done by 
thinning out the branches, or cutting back all its branches. 
The growth of new roots depends upon the assistance of the 
leaves at the top. If the leaves are too few the roots will not 
grow freely. If there are too many leaves the roots cannot fur- 
nish a sufficient supply of food for them. 

The relation between root and leaves is : The leaves cannot 
exist without the moisture and crude elements received through 
the root. And the roots cannot grow without the nourishment 
received from the leaf. 

Different kinds of trees vary in growth and therefore must 
be differently treated at time of transplanting. 

Peach can be cut freely. 

Grapes can be cut freely. 

Cherry should be cut lightly, if at all cut. 

Pear moderately cut. 

Apple moderately cut. 

Plum cut freely. 

Quince cut freely. 

TABLE OF DISTANCES TO PLANT DIFFERENT VARIETIES 
AND NUMBER REQUIRED TO THE ACRE. 

Apple — 25 feet apart each way using 70 to acre; 20 feet 
apart each way using 110 to acre. 

Pear — 15 feet apart each way using 195 to acre; 12 feet 
apart each way using 300 to acre. 

Peach — 15 feet apart each way using 195 to acre. 

Cherry — 18 feet apart each way using 135 to acre; 15 feet 
apart each way using 195 to acre. 



12 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

Plum— 15 feet apart each way using 195 to acre; 10 feet 
apart each way using 435 to acre^ 

Apricot — 15 feet apart each way using 195 to acre. 
' Quince — 8 feet apart each way using 680 to acre. ^ 
Grape — 8 feet apart each way using 680 to acre. 

Gooseberry, in rows 5 ft. apart, 31^ ft- apart in rows, 2571 to acre. 
Currants . . in rows 5 ft. apart, 3I/2 ft. apart in rows, 2571 to acre. 
Raspberry. . in rows 5 ft apart, 20 in. apart in rows, 5227 to acre. 
Blackberry, in rows 5 ft. apart, 20 in. apart in rows, 5227 to acre. 
Strawberry in rows 3 ft. apart, 12 in. apart in rows, 14,520 to acre. 
Strawberry, in rows 3 ft. apart, 18 in. apart in rows, 9680 to acre. 

QUANTITY OF SEED REQUIRED TO PLANT AN ACRE. 

Asparagus in 12-inch drills, 10 quarts; asparagus plants, 4 
by 11/2 feet, 8,000; barley, 2 1/^ bushels; beans, bush, in drills, 2I/2 
feet, 1^/2 bushels ; beans, pole, Lima, 4 by 4 feet, 20 quarts ; beans, 
Carolina, prolific, etc., 4 by 3 feet, 10 quarts; beets and mangold, 
drills, 2% feet, 9 pounds; broom corn in drills, 12 pounds; cab- 
bage, outside, for transplanting, 12 ounces; cabbage, sown in 
frames, 4 ounces; carrot, in drills 2i/2 feet, 4 pounds; celery, seed, 
8 ounces ; celery, plant, 4 by % f set, 25,000 ; clover, white Dutch, 

13 pounds ; clover. Lucerne, 10 pounds ; clover, Alsike, 6 pounds ; 
clover, large red, with timothy, 12 pounds; clover, large red, 
without timothy, 16 pounds; corn, sugar, 10 quarts; corn, field, 
8 quarts; corn, salad, drill 10 inches, 25 pounds; cucumber, in 
hills, 3 quarts; flax, broadcast, 20 quarts; grass, timothy, with 
clover, 6 quarts ; grass, timothy, without clover, 10 quarts ; grass, 

.orchard, 25 quarts; grass, red top or hjcads^ 20 quarts.; grass, 
blue, 28 quarts; grass, rye, 20 quarts ; lettuce, in' tows '2i/|" f ©Jet, 
3 pounds; lawn grass, 35 pounds; melons,, water, in hills 8 by 8 
feet, 3 pounds; melons, citrons; 4 by 4 feet, 2 poiinds; oats, 2 
bushels ; onions, in beds for sets, 50 pounds ; onions, in rows for 
large bulbs, 7 pounds ; parsnip, in drills 2^2 feet, 5 pounds; pep- 
per, plants, 21/2 by 1 foot, 17,500; pumpkin, in. hills 8 by 8 feet, 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 13 

2 quarts ; parsley, in drills 2 feet, 4 pounds ; peas, in drills, short 
varieties, 2 bushels ; peas, in drills, tall varieties, 1 to 11/2 bush- 
els; peas, broadcast, 3 bushels; potatoes, 8 bushels; radish, in 
drills 2 feet, 10 pounds ; rye, broadcast, 1% bushels ; rye, drilled, 
11/2 bushels; squash, bush, in hills, 4 by 4 feet, 3 pounds; turnips, 
in drills 2 feet, 3 pounds ; turnips, broadcast, 3 pounds ; tomatoes, 
in frames, 3 ounces ; tomatoes, seed in hills 3 by 3 feet, 8 ounces ; 
tomatoes, plants, 3,800; wheat, in drills, tl^ bushels; wheat, 
broadcast, 2 bushels. 

VARIETIES ADAPTED TO VARIOUS SECTIONS. 

Growers differ somewhat in their estimate of varities, but 
the following lists will be useful in determining what varieties 
to plant in your locality : 

Northern District. 

Embracing the counties of Eagle, Grand, Larimer,. Logan, 
Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Summit, Washington, Weld, Pitkin 
and Yuma. 

Apples — For Sununer varieties: Red June, Yellow Trans- 
parent and Duchess. For Fall varieties : Wealthy, Utter Red, 
Plum Cider, Gravenstein and . Jeffries. For Winter varieties : 
Ben Davis, Jonathan, Walbridge, Gano, Belleflower, Winesap, 
Missouri Pippin, Rome Beauty, N. W. Greening. 

Crab Appl^-Whitney No. 20, Martha, Hyslop, Florence, 
Shields. 

Pears— Standard, Seckle, Tyson, Rossney, Flemish Beauty, 
Dwarf, Duchess, Bartlett. 

Prunes— German, Italian, Silver, French, Hungarian, Pa- 
cific, Tennant. 

Plums— De Soto, Eagle, Quaker, Sunset, Wyant, Weaver, 
Wolf, Cherry, Lombard, Moore's Arctic, Green Gage, Hawkeye^ 
Peach Plum. 

Cherries— Montmorency, English Morello, Dyehouse, Early 
Richmond, May Duke, Olivet, Ostheim. 



14 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

Red Easpberries — Marlboro. 

Black Raspberries — Kansas and Gregg. 

Blackberries — Taylor, Wilson, Erie, Briton, Rathbun, El- 
dorado, Missouri. 

Dewberry — Lucretia. 

Currants — Versailles, Cherry, Red Dutch, Victoria, Fay, 
Red Cross, London Market. 

Gooseberries — Downing, Champion, Smith, Pearl, Red 
Jacket, Smith's Improved. 

Grapes — Delaware, Brighton, Concord, Warden, Moore's 
Early, Martha, Niagara. 

Strawberries — Captain Jack, Warfield, Bubach, Clyde, 
Glauer, Dunlap, Jucunda, Bederwood. 

In the Northern District, vines and small fruits, such as 
grapes, raspberries and blackberries, must be laid down during 
winter. 

Southern District. 

Embracing the counties of Baca, Bent, Chaffee, Cheyenne, 
Custer, El Paso, Teller, Fremont, Huerfano, Kiowa, Lake, Las 
Animas, Otero, Prowers and Pueblo. 

Apple — Summer varieties: Yellow Transparent, Duchess, 
Cooper's Early White. Fall varieties: Wealthy, Rambo, Jef- 
fries, Gravenstein, Utter Red. Winter varieties: Ben Davis, 
Gano, Winesap, Jonathan, Willow Twig, Missouri Pippin, Rome 
Beauty, N. W. Greening, York Imperial. 

Crab Apples — Martha, Whitney No. 20, Shields, Florence. 

Peach — Triumph, Alexander, Elberta, Stump, Champion, 
Lemon Cling, Heath Cling, Crawford Early, St. John, Won- 
derful. 

Pears — Standard, Bartlett, Sheldon, Duchess, Flemish 
Beauty, Dwarf, Seckle. 

Prunes — German, Italian, Silver, French, Hungarian, Ten- 
nant, Pacific. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 15 

Plums — Forest Garden, De Soto, Lombard, Moore's Arctic, 
Green Gage, Damson, Yellow Egg, Shipper's Pride, Wild Goose, 
Burbank. 

Nectarines — Violet and Golden. 

Apricots— Moore Park, Peach, Royal. 

Cherries — Early Richmond, Wragg, Montmorency, Ostheim, 
English Morello, Dyehouse. 

Blackberries — Snyder, Briton, Wilson. 

Black Raspberries — Missouri, Gregg, Kansas. 

Red Raspberries — Marlboro, Lunden, Cuthbert. 

Currants — Cherry, Red Dutch, Fay, Red Cross, London 
Market. 

. Gooseberry — Smith, Downing, Red Jacket, Houghton, Pearl. 

Strawberries — Bederwood, Warfield, Jucunda, Clyde, Cap- 
tain Jack, Dunlap. 

Grapes — Concord, Worden, Moore's Early, Brighton, Dela- 
ware, Agawam, Niagara. 

Quinces — Orange and Champion. 

Almonds — Princess Hard Shell. 

Western District. 

Embracing the counties or Archuleta, Costillo, Delta, Dol- 
ores, Garfield, Gunnison, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mesa, Montrose, 
Montezuma, Rio Grande, Rio Blanco, Routt, Saguache, San Juan 
and San Miguel. Parties planting at altitudes above 5,000 feet 
should use Northern District list, or correspond with some one 
familiar with the section in which you may want to plant. 

Apple — Summer varieties: Early Harvest, Yellow Trans- 
parent, Red June, Chenango, Strawberry, Duchess. Fall vari- 
eties: Maiden Blush, Utter Red, Golden Sweet, Fameuse, Mft- 
Mahon, Wealthy. Early Winter varieties : Jonathan, Wolf River, 
Grimes' Golden, Smith's Cider, Rome Beauty, Huntsman. Late 
Winter varieties : York Imperial, Willow Twig, Ben Davis, Gano, 
Winesap, Lawver, Pearmain, Staymen, Missouri Pippin. 

Crab Apples — Same as Northern District. 



16 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

Pears — Wilder, Bartlett, Howell, Flemish Beauty, Keiffer. 

Peaches — Arkansas Traveler, Hale, St. John, Crawford's 
Early, Elberta, Foster, Salway. (Elberta planted more extens- 
ively than all others combined.) 

- Plums — "Wild Goose, Weaver, Miner, Lombard, Green Gage, 
Peach, Yellow Egg, Burbank, Bradshaw, Red June. 

Cherries — English Morello, Early Richmond, Montmorency, 
May Duke, Black Tartarian, Wragg, Ostheim. 

Apricots — Early Golden, Moore Park, Royal, Peach. 

Nectarines — Violet, Snow Flake, Stamwick, Golden. 

Grapes — Niagara, Brighton, Concord, Worden, Moore's 
Early, Sweetwater, Black Hamburg, Black Spanish, Purple Dam- 
ascus, Flame Tokay, Thompson Seedless, Muscat, Malaga, Em- 
peror, Seedless Sultana. 

Gooseberries — Berkeley, Houghton, Chautauqua, Industry. 

Currants — Cherry, Red Dutch, White Grape. 

Raspberries — Gregg, Nemaha, Cuthbert, Marlboro. 

Dewberries — Lucretia. 

Blackberries — Missouri, Rathbun, Eldorado. 

Central District. 

Embracing the counties of Arapahoe, Boulder, Clear Creek, 
Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin, Jeiferson, Kit Carson, Lincoln 
and Park. 

Apples — Summer varieties: Duchess, Sops of Wine, Red 
June, Yellow Transparent, Early Harvest, Cooper Early White. 
Fall varieties : Wealthy, McMahon, Utter Red, Gravenstein, Jef- 
fries. Winter varieties : Ben Davis, N. W. Greening, Jonathan, 
Winesap, Walbridge, Pearmain, Gano, Rail's Genet, Missouri 
Pippin, Rome Beauty. 

Crab Apple— Martha, Whitney No. 20, Florence, Shields. 

Plums — Lombard, Burbank, Weaver, Moore's Arctic, Brad- 
shaw, Washington, Yellow Egg, Coe's Golden. 

Prunes — Italian, German, Pacific, Pond Seedling. 

Grapes— Delaware, Brighton, Lindley, Moore's Early, Wor- 
den, Concord, Niagara, Agawam. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 17 

Blackberries — Erie, Wilson, Briton, Taylor, Rathbun, El- 
dorado, Missouri. 

Peaches — Elberta, Bokara No. 3, Crosby, Early Rivers, 
Early Crawford. 

Gooseberries — Downing, Houghton, Triumph, Smith's Im- 
proved. 

Currants — Fay, Red Dutch, Cherry, Victoria, White Grape, 
Red Cross, London Market. 

Red Raspberries — ^Marlboro. 

Cherries — English Morello, Wragg, Montmorency, Ostheim, 
Dyehouse, Early Richmond. 

Strawberries — Bederwood, Champion, Crescent, Gandy, 
Jessie, Vick, Jucunda, Captain Jack, Clyde, Dunlap, Glaner. 

Many varieties grown, which do fairly well in most locali- 
ties, are not mentioned in foregoing lists. But upon inquiry 
of writer of this volume, you will be gladly and fully informed 
of just what you can depend upon having them do if planted 
in your locality. It is the intention to recommend to you only 
such varieties as have proven^ themselves to be the best of their 
respective kinds in localities mentioned. 

We will now proceed to care of the orchard, as I feel assured 
the preceding chapters are simple and fully enough written to 
enable anyone to select and plant the orchard desired. 

CULTIVATION. 

Cultivation can be commenced as though the trees were a 
crop of vegetables, or cultivate them as you would any crop, 
using a cultivator and do it often, so as to keep down all weeds 
and grass which, if let grow, will take from the soil the strength 
and moisture the tree needs. Such crops as sugar beets, peas, 
beans and their like may be grown in your young orchard, 
always being sure nothing is grown within a distance of three or 
four feet from the trees in all directions, so the ground can be 



18 IRRIGATION FRUIT aROWING. 

kept loose and clean surrounding the trees for that distance. 
Corn has been found to be one of the best crops to be .grown in 
a young orchard. The stalks acting as a shade and protection 
against winds to the young trees. But the stalks and corn must 
be removed from the orchard in the fall, so as not to furnish 
food for rabbits, mice and such pests, that would be attracted 
by them. By frequent cultivation you destroy surface roots and 
compel the roots of the tree to go deeper. It is very important 
that this cultivation begin at once, for should you neglect it and 
a large amount of surface roots let grow, and later on do 'your 
cultivation, the destruction of root at one time will be too great 
for the good of the trees. The trees must always be cultivated 
as though a crop of its own. And the only reason in permitting 
other crops to be grown in your young orchard is that you may 
secure a revenue by so doing from your land while you are 
growing your orchard. Do not think you can grow trees among 
crops because you can grow crops among trees, for you can not. 
This manner of cultivation should be continued until trees get 
to be of such size as to prevent it. 

HAIRY VETCH AS A WINTER COVERING FOR ORCHARDS. 

Under no conditions or circumstances is any one thing so 
beneficial in growing an orchard, as cultivation. Yet there are 
objections in some localities (especially if you have no wind- 
break) to having a clean piece of ground during winter, as the 
winter and early spring winds move the soil, if it be sandy. 
The writer has seen parts of orchards when the soil from several 
trees joining each other, had all been blown away from them, 
exposing the entire root system. 

Many kinds of crops have been tried, but none fill the bill as 
well as hairy vetch. This can be sown in late summer or in the 
fall, and it will reach a sufficient growth to cover the ground well 
and catch the snows in winter, which is virtually storing water 
or moisture for next season's use. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 19 

The plant is easily destroyed and therefore will not become 
a nuisance. Sow in the late summer or early fall, and in the 
spring plow under and thereby add fertility to the soil. A crop 
of beans, peas or corn can be raised each year after plowing 
under in the spring, and the crop removed in the fall, and again 
sown in vetch. It will thrive on the lightest of sandy soils. 
Just the kind the winds move. Nothing as yet has been found to 
do the work it will, therefore it is the one thing recommended. 

PRUNING OF FRUIT AND ORNAMENTAL TREES. 

Composition for Wounds Made in Pruning. — One quart of 
alcohol and dissolve as much gum shellac as will make a liquid 
the consistency of paint. Apply this to wound with a paint 
brush, always paring the wound smooth first with a knife. Keep 
in a tightly closed vessel to keep from evaporating and getting 
too thick. 

Apple Trees. — It is generally considered to be advisable to 
delay pruning until cold weather is past. The height from the 
ground at which the limbs are shortened usually is about one 
and -one-half to two feet. But this can be varied to suit the 
ideals of the grower. However, high-headed trees should be 
avoided. From four to five limbs should form the scaffold or 
limbs branching from the trunk of the tree. When the form of 
the top has been established the subsequent pruning will be in 
removing superfluous limbs from center of top, and those that 
run crosswise and rub against other limbs, keeping the top 
thinned out so as to admit light and air, which develop and color 
the fruit. 

Plum Trees. — Start top about two feet above ground. The 
fruit being borne upon spurs, heading in does not thin. Remove 
each year dead or damaged limbs. 

Apricot Trees. — Treat same as plum. But do very little, if 
any, heading in. 



20 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

Cherry Trees. — Methods used on plum and apricot trees ap- 
ply to the cherry. 

Peach Trees. — Heading in thins the fruit, which also in- 
duces new growth of shoots on which the fruit is borne. Trim 
out dead wood. 

Pear Trees. — Pear trees grow upright and top should be 
started close to the ground to prevent damage of body from sun. 
The top can be thinned out very little each year. Heavy prun- 
ing not permissible. 

Quince Trees. — Head low. Heading in thins fruit. Thin out 
top each winter by removing dead, damaged or superfluous 
limbs or branches. 

Blackberries and Raspberries. — All bear their fruit on canea 
grown the previous year, which should be removed in the fall, 
leaving fifteen to twenty-five of this year 's growth for next year 's 
fruit bearers. When canes reach a height of three feet, cut off 
tip, which forces growth of side branches. Early the following 
spring these branches are to be shortened by cutting to desired 
length and removing all ends of canes or branches damaged by 
winter freezing or laying down. 

COVERING RASPBERRIES AND BLACKBERRY CANES. 

Plow alongside of row of plants a deep furrow and lay canes 
in it, all in one direction, covering same with soil which must be 
fine and loose. Care must be taken so as not to break or bruise 
the canes. The usual rule is for one man to lay the canes down, 
holding them there while others place ground upon them until 
sufficient ground has been placed upon them to hold them in 
position. Then finish with plow, covering them sufficiently so 
that all parts are protected. And see that they remain covered. 

Second Method.— T^he above is the old method as largely 
practiced in many sections, but the Loveland growers have dis- 
covered a much better plan which leaves your ground in better 
shape when you are ready to plow under. Adz. : first make into 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



21 



stakes a lot of your old canes which you have cut out, or if your 
patch is new cut branches of tre^s about two feet long ; now take 
canes of first hill and bend over to roots of second hill and bend 
canes of second hill back to roots of first hill. Now place a pin 
over the tops of the canes and into roots of each hill. Now take 
third hill and bend down to roots of second hill, pinning down, 
and so on through the entire row, pinning as you go. 







Currants and Gooseberries. — The canes of both bear several 
seasons. The first two or three crops are the finest. Cut away 
after bearing two years, each year some of the old canes, so as 
to encourage new growth of canes and to keep plant from get- 
ting too tall. 

Shade Trees. — ^When shade trees are once shaped to suit the 
idea of grower, all the pruning necessary is each year to remove 



22 IRRiaATION FRUIT GROWING. 

dead and damaged limbs and keep shape of tree. Original shape 
of tree should always be retained if possible. 

Flowering Plants. — Come under two heads and require 
pruning at different seasons. Those to be headed back just after 
blooming are the Azalea, Snowball, Lilac, Mock Orange, Spirea, 
Wigelia, Barberry, Viburnum, Flowering Crab, Tree Peony, Al- 
mond, Syringia. Those to be headed back while in a dormant 
state, any time from the time the leaves have fallen until the buds 
swell in the spring are Roses, Clematis, Hydrangia, Hybiscus, 
Elder, Honeysuckle, Althea, Calycanthus. 

STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 

Prepare soil in the fall for spring planting. And in the 
spring for fall planting by applying twenty-fiye to thirty loads 
of well-rotted manure to the acre. Plow under and harrow and 
cross harrow, making it mellow. Mark out rows three feet apart 
and set plants twelve to eighteen inches apart in the rows, leav- 
ing the crown oi the plant just level with the surface. Make 
the soil firm around the plant with foot. Irrigate immediately 
after planting. Hoe and cultivate frequently during the sum- 
mer. When the first runners appear, cut them off. Always let 
plants go into winter quarters with plenty of moisture. As soon 
as the ground is frozen hard, cover the plants with a covering of 
light strawy manure. Before this covering is put on and before 
the ground freezes cultivate and leave a furrow between each 
row. When uncovering in the spring, pile surplus ' straw and 
manure in this furrow and let it remain there. When you irri- 
gate the water runs under the straw and washes out the elements 
of the manure, and also acts as a mulch to hold moisture. After 
crop is gathered keep the weeds cut down (allowing none to go 
to seed), rake off and burn. Cultivate between rows, then apply 
a coat of well-rotted manure, spread evenly over the ground and 
harrow in well; flood the patch with water when dry enough; 
cultivate often; irrigate often and lightly. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 23 

ASPARAGUS CULTIVATION. 

Procure from your nurseryman the number of plants 
wanted. Loosen soil to a depth of eighteen inches and make very 
rich with well-rotted manure. Mark out bed in rows three feet 
apart and place plants twelve inches apart in the rows. In 
planting, have the crown three inches below the level of the 
bed, covered with the soil to that depth. Cultivate every few 
days by raking well with garden rake, until plants show above 
ground, then use hoe. 

For the first two years keep down all weeds and allow no 
asparagus to go to seed. Clean off in the fall and give heavy 
coat of manure with about three pounds of salt to every square 
rod of bed. The following spring you can begin to cut. • As soon 
as the tip of a sprout appears at the surface remove dirt to 
about one -half inch above crown of plant, cutting off sprout at 
that point, placing dirt back again. Never allow any shoots to 
go to seed. In the fall proceed as you did the fall before and 
so continue and your bed will improve each year. 

RHUBARB CULTIVATION. 

Select a deep soil and enrich it with manure. Mark oat in 
rows five feet apart and set plants three feet apart in rows. Cul- 
tivate and keep clean and well watered during the season ; cover 
in the fall with heavy coat of manure well rotted. Continue 
same treatment each year for four or five years. By that time 
the plants will be so large that they should be taken up and 
divided, when better results will be had for the same period 
again. 

GRAPE CULTURE. 

Prepare ground as for any other fruit. Plant in rows eight 
feet apart and put plants six to eight feet apart in rows. Dig 
the holes of sufficient depth to allow planting a little deeper than 
they grew in the nursery. Evenly distribute the roots so they 
will grow in all directions ; fill in about the roots with well-pul- 



24 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



verized soil firmly. Drive a stake of sufficient height and 
strength to bear weight of the vine for two years. Train vino 
as a simple shoot from which all side branches should be pinched 
off as they appear. At the end of first year's growth vine will 
J 








be a straight shoot, kept fastened to stake as it grew. Cut back 
in the fall to about two feet from ground. 

Second season allow only two top buds to grow, rubbing off 
all others below them, and train the same as you trained single 
shoot last season. In the fall cut back these two shoots to two 
feet in length. The vine will then have its stem and two 
branches. The stake is now to be removed and a trellis sup- 
port to take its place, which is built of wire and posts as you 
would a barbwire fence. Place the first wire two feet from the 



tRRIGATION FRUIT GtROWlNG. 



25 




ground and each wire one foot above, five wires in all will build 
the best trellis. No. 8 or No. 12 wire are the best sizes to use. 
Now raise your vine and fasten to bottom wire the stem and 
extend in opposite directions the two branches along bottom 
wire. The third year the shoots that spring from these 
branches train upward and make fast to each wire of the trellis. 
At the end of the third year the vine is fully, established with its 



26 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



permanent upright stem and its two horizontal arms. Each ai*m 
with its three or foiir shoots trained upward. Every other up- 
right cane on both arms must be cut down to a short stump 
about three inches long and the balance cut off even with top of 
highest wire on trellis. The following spring a single shoot 
is allowed to grow from each stump trained vertically to wires 
above. Late in the fall, when there is no frost in wood of vine, 
the canes that have borne fruit should be cut down to short 
spurs a few inches from horizontal arms, and the shoots that 
have grown from the spurs the preceding year must be retained 
for fruiting next season. New wood in this way is grown each 
year for the next year's fruit. 




'5 - "I 

Grape Leaf Hopper — Greatly Enlarg-e"d. 



TO PROTECT YOUNG TREES FROM INJURY BY RABBITS. 

Thin strips of wood as lath, proper length to reach high 
enough on body of tree, corn stalks or the like tied around the 
body will prevent rabbits from gnawing, as they can not get at 
body of tree without gnawing away the lath or com stalk, which 
they will not do. This must be done early in the fall and re- 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 27 

moved in the spring. Common window screen is effective. There 
are many washes, but none are absolutely effective. The follow- 
ing are good. 

No, 1 — Blood smeared upon trees, as high as rabbits can 
reach will generally keep them away. 

No. 2 — Fresh cow dung, one peck ; quick lime, one-half peck ; 
flower of sulphur, one-half pound ; lamp black, one-fourth pound. 
Mix the whole into a thick paste with soap suds and apply to 
body of tree. 

No. 3 — Aloes, one pound; water, four gallons. Painted on 
the body of the tree will, on account of its bitterness, prevent 
rabbits from doing much eating there. 

No. 4 — Asafoetida tinct., one-half ounce, in two gallons of 
liquid clay or mud brushed upon body of tree two or three times 
during the winter. 

To Remedy the Evil Done by Rabbits by Gnawing the Bark 
of Young Trees. — Pare and clean the wound and cover it with 
grafting wax or with fresh cow manure and bind it up with 
burlap. 

SHADE AND ORNAMENTAL TREES. 

In Colorado our quickest growth and best shade trees are 
the Carolina poplar, Cottonless Cottonwood, Box Elder, Lom- 
bardy poplar, Russian willow, Elm, Ash, Black Locust, Norway 
and Sugar maple. 

As ornamental evergreens Blue Spruce and Red Spruce have 
no equals. 

The Mountain Ash and Cut Leaf Birch are both of no little 
value as an ornamental tree. The Catalpa, Speciosa, ^Locust, Ma- 
ple, Ash, Elm and Walnut are all grown and do well. It has been 
the custom of a great many eastern orchard men to plant every 
thirtieth to fortieth tree in their orchard an Evergreen, to en- 
courage birds to make the orchard their home. As no tree makes 
such an ideal sleeping place as an evergreen. 



28 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

WIND BREAKS. 

A wind break is intended to break the wind from the fruit 
orchard and anything that will do it the best is the best. 

There can be no better tree planted that will make a better 
wind break than the cedar or spruce. Being an evergreen^ they 
are always ready to do battle with the wind. But their only 
objection is their slow growth as compared to other trees that 
can be used. All orchards should have wind breaks planted at 
times of planting, on north and west sides. On those sides be- 
cause the prevailing hard winds are from those directions. 

The Carolina Poplar is, in my opinion, the best all-around 
tree for wind breaks that can be planted. Of quick growth, 
hardy and subject to less pests than any other. 

The Cottonless Cottonwood comes next in line as a second 
choice. Also a quick grower, but more liable to be broken in 
storms. 

The Russian willow is good, quick grower, and nothing 
bothers it. 

The Locust is good, but not of very quick growth. 

The Soft Maple is a rapid grower, but soft-wooded and liable 
to damage in storms and the raid of insect pests. 

The question of cost, time or labor should not be taken into 
consideration when a wind brake is wanted. Nothing is too 
good for a wind brake. Many times the cost may be saved each 
year by keeping the wind from blowing the fruit off the trees and 
breaking them down when heavily laden with fruit or ice. Be 
sure and plant your wind brake at no later time than when 
you set your orchard. 

IRRIGATION OF TREES AND VINES. 

It is not worth while to discuss upon theoretical grounds or 
attempt to answer the general question : Should irrigation be 
employed and to what extent in the growing of trees and vines ? 

The true guide is local experience, and the test is the quality 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 29 

and quantity of fruit produced. If your trees show no distress, 
or you are able to secure a fine quality and quantity of fruit 
without irrigation then you need none. 

Some years, or may be most years, in your locality there is 
enough rainfall, and some years there is not enough. To be 
safe, provide for irrigation, and use it when you need it. 

Irrigation or non-irrigation are not in themselves principals, 
but are methods to be employed when demanded. 

If, by proper pruning, cultivation and thinning fruit, moist- 
ure enough is not provided, then irrigation must be resorted to. 
The amount of water needed depends on the local rainfall, soil, 
evaporation and condition and kind of crop. This must be de- 
termined by the grower himself. As two pieces of land, although 
they may join each other, may vary in their needs. It is difficult 
to answer the question so frequently asked as to how often a 
young orchard should be irrigated, on account of the varying 
conditions, but our experience is that an orchard on land that 
has never been cultivated before will require five or six times as 
much water as one on old land. The late fall irrigation is of the 
utmost importance and should never be neglected, because thou- 
sands of trees die for lack of moisture during the dry, warm 
days of our beautiful winters. The work necessary to grow a 
young orchard savors considerably of a continuous performance, 
but in a country like ours, where it begins to bear in three or 
four years and never fails, the reward is sure and large and 
compared with eastern states is much more quickly realized. 

FRUIT GROWING WITHOUT IRRIGATION. 

Very successful experiments have been made recently of 
growing cherries on the highlands of the foothills in Larimer 
county, Colorado. The orchards have borne heavily the past 
three seasons without any irrigation. The fruit has been excel- 
lently flavored and highly colored, demonstrating fully that cher- 
ries can be grown in Colorado without irrigation. 



30 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

In this method of fruit farming much depends on the prepa- 
ration and cultivation of the soil. And the rules and directions 
given must be followed as though you intended to plant where 
irrigation is needed. 

B. R. Parsons of Parker, Douglas county, has been quite 
successful in producing a dry orchard. Trees planted in the 
spring of 1895 are now from ten to fifteen feet high, with a . 
spread of from seven to ten feet. One lot of forty cherries gave 
a yield of 400 quarts last year. He has succeeded, without any 
watering whatever, in growing cherries, plums, apples, pears, 
currants, gooseberries and a few peaches. He plants very close 
in the row and' heads as low as the habits of the tree will allow. 
Mr. C. Gr. McWhorter of Masonville, Colorado, who has 
made a success of growing cherry above irrigation, contributes 
the following article on his methods: 

Growing Cherries Above Irrigation. — In growing cherries 
without irrigation the most important part of the work is the 
preparation of the soil. You can not plow too deep or make too 
mellow. In my orchard I used four horses on stirring plow 
and followed with four on subsoiler. The first furrow was 
turned about nine inches deep and the subsoiler ran about as 
much deeper, making nearly eighteen inches in all. I then opened 
furrows as deep as possible with the plow, in which I planted 
the trees, and at the same time gave each tree at least two pails 
of water to settle the earth well about the roots. This I consider 
of the utmost importance in planting in dry ground. 

After that trees were covered with the shovel sufficiently 
to hold in place. The furrows were filled with the plow, the 
earth being thrown up. until the trees were on a ridge, leaving a 
hollow above each row to catch rainfall. In the cultivation of a 
dry orchard I think it well to run the subsoiler through at least 
once a year, running as close as possible to the trees without 
damaging roots; then give good, clean surface cultivation, often 
enough to give good mulch of dry soil. My orchard is now five 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 31 

years old and has borne three crops, producing the past year 150 
crates to the acre. At this writing, January 5, 1905, the trees 
are full of buds, giving promise of large crop the coming sea- 
son. The trees are as well grown, healthy and productive as 
others I am growing under irrigation. 

WINTER IRRIGATION. 

Whether beneficial or not depends on your soil. If you have 
a deep soil you can use water in large quantities in winter. As 
you have a reservoir for storing water in the soil. But if the 
soil is shallow and underlaid with hard pan or rock, you have 
no storage for winter water, and you will have to depend upon 
summer irrigation as needed. The same condition will exist where 
your soil is underlaid with gravel or sand. And any great 
amount of winter irrigation will injure your soil by carrying off 
(as the soil is not deep enough to hold it) the strength of any 
fertilizers applied. 

GATHERING, STORING AND MARKETING FRUIT. 

For long keeping or storage, fruit must be picked early. For 
sliippiag, pick when the seed begins to get black and the fruit 
yields to pressure. The requirement of a fruit house for the 
storage of apples is an even cool temperature with moist air and 
good ventilation. 

In selecting apples for storage, nothing but sound fruit 
carefully picked and handled should be kept. 

The question of marketing time is a business proposition. 
And one man will succeed with poorer apples than another one 
may have, and fail all on account of his business ability along 
that line. 

Corn, oats and general farm crops are always marketable 
at a given price, depending on grade. While to apples the same 
applies and in addition the manner in which they are picked, the 



32 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWlNiQ. 

packing and grading. And at no time must they be handled or 
any attempt made to pick them when frost is in them. Frost or 
light freezing does not hurt them, if not allowed to be touched 
or handled while there is any frost in them. But just as sure as 
you attempt to handle them in that condition, just that sure you 
can be that they will not keep long. 

Summer apples, of course, must be marketed as they be- 
come fit. And therefore the small orchardist must not plant 
many in excess of his own needs. Fall apples are some better in 
this respect, as they are used more freely than summer apples, 
excepting the very early ones. On account of there not being 
so many small fruits at this time of year, and in addition will 
keep better. So they can be more liberally planted. But the 
winter apple, on account of its being possible to keep, makes it 
the kind to grow, both for the market and the home. And the 
profit of same depends upon its quality and care, both in grow- 
ing, keeping and marketing. But to be successful to the end, 
care and judgment must be exercised along all lines from the 
time you select your ground for planting orchard until you have 
used the fruit, or have the money in your hands from its sale. 
And the success you attain will depend on yourself. As the 
growing of fruit successfully will not permit of haphazard work, 
or occasional fits of enthusiasm, but must be a steady and con- 
tinuous study and application of the same. The kind of pack- 
ages you can use must be determined by your market in 
which you sell. This can be easily obtained by apply- 
ing to any reliable wholesale dealer in fruits which you 
grow, and to whom you may ship. The poorest market 
as far as your net prices are concerned, is secured 
through commission men. Indiscriminate consigning of fruit is 
bad. If you intend doing any selling of fruit through a com- 
mission house, KNOW YOUR MAN. Never make a shipment 
unless you have corresponded, or in some manner found out 
from the person you intend to ship to, what he expects or can do. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 33 

Often it so happens that one point is overloaded with fruit as to 
amount to a drug on that market. While another is left unpro- 
vided with enough to meet the demands. This comes of sense- 
less and worthless shipments. And had all of the shippers first 
written or got the condition of the market before shipping, both 
points would have been supplied and a fair price secured. Sup- 
posing, as an example, you usually buy your groceries or pro- 
visions from several dealers, and they should pursue the same 
method and, all of them send you one dozen ears of corn, or one 
peck .of potatoes, or a box of berries, or whatever they all might 
happen to have on hand 1 And you paid them for just what you 
needed or consumed. Their business would not be very profit- 
able. 

And when you ship to points or parties before knowing 
what you can expect or what the conditions are, your business is 
like the grocer's. Better both had allowed the goods to spoil at 
home than to pay transportation or supply consumers at a price 
that is a loss to you. The grocer comes around or waits for you 
to come to him to find out what you can use. A successful ship- 
per also finds out what is wanted. This can be done by investi- 
gation as to the party to whom you ship, if he be honest or not, 
and have him keep you posted on his market. And should your 
crop be too large, have a number .of such points from which you 
can be posted. But never under any circumstances will anything 
help you in disposing of your crop as the one thing, viz : reputa- 
tion on packing and grading. Men will work up to such a repu- 
tation and then think anything from them will sell on account 
of their past reputation. But the result of such a proceeding al- 
ways brings ruin and a reputation irretrievably lost. Do not un- 
derstand that I would have you attempt to singly obviate the ne- 
cessity of commission men. Not at all. They are a necessary 
evil, but dishonest ones should be left entirely alone. Indiscrim- 
inate consignments will not do it. In fact, it is that which makes 
and keeps up the rascal in commission business. The best and 



34 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

only sure course to pursue is by combining or forming an associ- 
ation of fruit growers, and employing an able man to find your 
markets. This gives you all your time and attention to apply to 
grading and packing your fruit. The better man you employ, 
the better the result, as far as prices go. And the better you 
grade and pack your fruit, the better he can do for you. Be- 
cause .you may only be a small grower, do not think you need 
not belong to the association. That makes no difference. As, 
for example, fifty growers of 100 packages each are the same, 
as one grower of 5000 packages , and their combined output just 
equals the output of the one large grower. When the time comes 
that all growers of fruit form themselves into an association (not 
to combine for oppression) to combine to secure markets for your 
fruits at profitable prices, then, and only then, will you be free 
from the shark in the shape of dishonest commission men. But 
so long as you singly and promiscuously ship and consign your 
fruits, (and the greater the amount the greater you make the 
necessity for him to exist), you provide him with material to ex- 
ist upon by independent action in shipping. 

Some of you will say, why, this or that association is not 
very successful. I did, as well as they. You are the man, and 
others like you, who make it hard for the association to be suc- 
cessful. Whenever an association fails, you will find one of two 
things are to blame for its failure. One is dishonesty in its offi- 
cials, and the other is so many independent indiscriminate ship- 
pers as to ruin the market. The forming, then, of an association, 
and the success of the same, entirely depends on you just as much 
as on any one other person, be you a small or large grower. Pay 
your manager a sufficient sum for his services so that he cannot af- 
ford to be dishonest. And all of you become members of the asso- 
ciati'Ui, and your Avork will become profitable. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 35 

THE RIPENING AND PICKING OF CHERRIES. 

During the year 1904 the writer knows of an orchard from 
which 3,000 crates were picked and shipped. And excepting three 
crates which were shipped to southern Texas and Mexico, every 
crate arrived at destination in saleable condition. The distances 
which they were shipped varying from 75 to 600 miles. 

The methods pursued were as follows: About three to five 
days in advance of picking, each variety was irrigated. This 
fills out and' perfects the cherry and helps to rij:)en it evenly. 
The time of doing this must vary according to moisture in the 
ground and condition of weather. If done too near the time of 
packing the fruit will be watery and not stand shipping so well 
A little experimenting will show just when to do this. And as 
necessary as this watering is, it is just so with picking. If picked 
too soon after watering, the cherry will be soft, and if delayed 
too long after watering it will have passed its true shipping con- 
dition. The picking was done by men, women and children. 
Each took a crate (made especially) that holds twelve boxes. 
Their boxes were put in the crates upside down, and taken to the 
tree to be filled. And the last thing done to them before filling, 
was turning them right side up. This cleans them of all dirt or 
trash that they may contain, and the box contains nothing when 
filled but fruit. 

Each picker had a belt which has in the front a receptacle 
just large enough to hold an empty box. The box is placed in it, 
which allows both hands to be used in picking. And as the cher- 
ries are cut from the tree they are placed in this box until 
it is filled, when it is placed back in the crate used in carrying. 
When the twelve boxes (which fill a carrying crate) are filled, 
the crate is taken to the packing tent or house. The person in 
charge receives each one and issues to picker a card which 
entitles them to pay for twelve quarts of fruit picked. This 
tray of twelve boxes is looked over by packer and cherries graded, 
and placed in the regulation shipping crate of twenty-four quarts 



36 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

and nailed shut, with each crate marked as to variety and grade. 
This gives the person in charge an opportunity of seeing each 
quart of fruit as it is packed, and also gives him the opportunity 
of knowing just who picked each box brought in. Then, if any 
bad cherries are shipped, only one person is to blame, and you 
know who that is. Of course it is the person in charge 
as he can set aside any box not properly filled or packed. 
The question of marking each crate (on end) stating just what 
it contains, is the correct thing to do. As an example, supposing 
you ship twenty-five crates of cherries to one firm, and upon ar- 
rival they are stacked up. The crates are all marked with only 
the variety they contain. And the person to whom they have 
been shipped opens one before his customers, and it proves to be 
of second grade, while it may be the only crate of that grade in 
the lot of twenty-five. Yet with no marks to prove it, why, the 
usual thing to do is to sell the entire lot upon the basis' of grade 
of the one crate opened. There is where the shipper gets the 
worst of it. But if reversed, the buyer gets the worst of it. And 
both incidents are bad in the end to the shipper. This mattiir 
of grading is imperative, as good fruit looks better if all good; 
and the second grade also looks better by itself. And lastly the 
purchaser knows just what he is getting, and soon buys his fruit 
from marks upon the crate, knowing what he can expect the in- 
side to contain. And any attempt to deceive him will forever de- 
stroy your reputation. 

The crates and boxes were always given a sun bath or al- 
lowed to stand in the sun before being filled. But always kept 
in the shade while and after being filled with fruit. Each ship- 
ment was taken to shipping station to meet such train as made 
the proper connection with other's which carried fruit to its des- 
tination. For when fruit is held over at any point of transfer, 
the care it usually gets is no help to it. And by holding it, or 
shipping as above stated, you suffer less by dangers in trans- 
portation. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 37 

By the issuance of tickets calling for the receipt and price to 
be paid to picker, not a single instance of misunderstanding oc- 
curred as to amounts picked or money due. 

It is impossible, of course, to get all honest pickers all the 
time, so by a careful look at the fruit that comes in, and occa- 
sionally turning a box or entire carrying tray out, you will soon 
become familiar with the picker's methods of trying to decieve 
you, if he so tries. 

Each picker was furnished with his outfit for picking every 
morning and taken back each evening, when the condition of it 
can be noted. And by this method not a single controversy was 
made necessary, or a single part of any one picker-'s equipment 
lost. Tents were used for receiving and packing the fruit, and 
were easily moved from place to place, so as not to make the 
distance too far for pickers to carry picked fruit and get empty 
boxes. Never, in any instance, was one picker allowed at one time, 
more than the one carrying crate of twelve boxes. The fruit by 
this means will be better handled and not too heavy to carry, and 
also comes to the packing tent sooner after picking. For if you 
will allow them more than one, they will be tempted to fill them 
all before bringing any of them in. 

Picking devices were tried. But nothing proved so success- 
ful as a good pair of scissors kept in condition. 

ROSES AND CLIMBING VINES AND THEIR CARE. 

Roses on their own roots are preferable. And in ordering 
roses from your nurseryman, always ask for them grown in that 
way. As roses grafted or budded on rose stock are liable to 
sprout whenever, from any cause, the top becomes killed back. 
And in many cases the sprouts from the roots will kill off the 
grafted or budded portion of the rose, and you will have nothing 
left but a mass of sprouts of wild roses of no value. 

In planting cut back to three or four buds and then place 
earth well up to top and let remain until roots start into growth, 



38 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

say two weeks. If you do this you will have no trouble in mak- 
ing them grow. A warm, well drained spot sheltered from winds 
but unshaded by buildings is the ideal spot to^ grow roses. Keep 
the ground moist but not too wet. When the weather becomes 
dry and the sun hot, put on about one or two inches of mulch- 
ing. Young plants require some protection at night imtil their 
soft stems have become woody. Also' until well started, some 
protection from the hot sun is needed. 

The pruning of roses will be found under their proper head 
in article upon pruning. 

A good plan for winter protection is to lay the bushes down, 
pulling the tops outward, and lay flat upon the ground, like the 
spokes in a wheel, with the roots for the hub, and cover with 
earth. But in some places roses are so planted that this cannot 
be done. You must be governed by where your rose stands. 
And keep in mind that you want to get the plant covered for 
protection from winter, and do it the best way it can be done, 
careing not to break or damake the bushes any more than can 
be possibly helped. 

Hybrid Perpetual Roses are the most valuable roses for out- 
door planting wherever a permanent bed is desired. They are 
perfectly hardy and will stand out severe winters with little or 
no protection. However, in northern Colorado and the higher 
altitudes, they should be laid down and covered in the fall as 
recommended. We have found the following sorts to be the best : 
Anna D. Diesbach, rose color; Alfred Colomb, crimson; Baron de 
Bonstetten, dark red; C. D. Alps, white; Clio, flesh colored; Eu- 
genia Furst, dark crimson; Francois Levet, rose color; G-eneral 
Washington, scarlet; Magna Charta, pink; Paul Neyron, rose; 
General Jacqueminot, dark red; M. P. Wilder, dark red; P. C. 
De Rohan, dark crimson; Ulrich Brunner, cherry red. 

A class of roses known as Hybrid Teas are all hardy and 
with ordinary attention as to winter covering, do nicely, viz: 
La France, American Beauty, Dinsmore, Kaiserina A. V., etc, 



Irrigation fruit growing. ^9 

The popular climbing roses are the White Rambler, Yellow 
Rambler, Crimson Rambler, Seven Sisters, Queen of Prairie and 
climbing General Jacqueminot. 

CHRYSANTHEMUM CULTURE. 

The Chrysanthemum is easily grown. If the plants are 
wanted to bloom only in the open ground, all that is necessary 
is to plant them in the open border in any good ground well en- 
riched with. manure. If possible, plant them in a warm, shel- 
tered spot. A better development will be had if they are planted 
in a place sheltered by a fence or shrubbery. Plant any time in 
April or May. Pinch off the tops so as to make them bushy 
about. August 1st. 

If grown for house culture, put each plant in a pot seven or 
eight inches Avide and deep. Sink these pots in the soil in open 
ground level with top, treat the same as directed for outdoor cul- 
ture. Turn pots every few days to keep roots from coming out 
bottom of pot (as the idea is to keep the roots formed all in the 
pots). Take indoors about October 1st. 

Early Varieties of Chrysanthemums: Bouquet National, 
white lemon center; Bouquet Fait, rose colored; Elaine, waxy 
white; Red Dragon, dark yellow, streaked bronze ; Glorisun, 
bright yellow ; Mrs. Brett, sulphur yellow. 

Late varieties, house culture : Ben D., golden yellow ; Cull- 
ingf ord, crimson ; Christmas Eve, white ; Pantasie, pink ; Lady 
Shade, purple pink; Moonlight, lemon white; Maid of Athens, 
whit(3. 

ORNAMENTAL CLIMBING VINES. 

Used to cover verandas, porches, arbors and walls, being 
found hardy, are among the following varieties : Honeysuckles, 
Virginia Creeper, Clematis, Wistaria, European Ivy, English 
Woodbine, Dutch Honeysuckle, Boston Ivy and Trumpet 
Creeper. And these may be successfully grown by using the 
same treatment as recommended for roses. 



40 IRRIGATION FRIJIT GROWING. 

SOME BEAUTIFUL TREES FOR HOME GROUNDS. 

Cut Leaf Birch, Teas Weepino^ Mulberry, Camperdown Elm, 
Wisconsin Weeping Willow, Weeping Ash. 

PLANTING AND CARING FOR BULBS. 

The Tulip : In planting a bed use all the early or late va- 
rieties separately. In no case plant or mix the early and late 
sorts in same bed. Plant in the fall, about three inches deep and 
eight inches apart in all directions. Before hard freezing 
weather sets in, cover the bed with leaves to a depth of four or 
five inches, which remove in the spring. When the bed is through 
blooming and the stems begin to wither, take up and dry the 
bulbs in the shade or a dark place, and keep in a dry place until 
wanted for fall planting. 

The Hyacinth, Narcissus and Crocus bulbs are less hardy. 
The best results come from the best grade of imported bulbs. 
Keep bulbs over winter and plant in spring. 

The Canna, Gladiola and Dahlia, after once you have a 
start, you can keep your bulbs over winter, from year to year. 
Plant in the spring. 

It is an easy matter to keep bulbs safely through the winter 
if they are stored in a proper place. Dahlias require no more 
care than a potato and may be treated in much the same way. 
Cannas will winter nicely if dried off in the pots just as they 
have been growing, then cut back the foliage and set them in a 
warm, dry closet. They should not be watered until it is desired 
to start them into growth again. Too much moisture while in a 
dormant state is death to them. Tuberoses require a warm, 
dry place in which to winter. The temperature of the average cel- 
lar is altogether too low for their safe keeping, for if kept any 
length of time where it falls below fifty degrees, the flower germ 
will be destroyed, although the outward appearance of the bulb 
would be the same to the casual observer. It is generally sup- 
posed that if these bulbs are kept dry and free from frost that is 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 41 

all that is required ; but it is not enough to insure their blooming 
another season. They should be kept where the temperature of 
the room does not fall below fifty degrees, and if it rises to sixty 
degrees so much the better for the health of the bulbs. Tender 
bulbs, such as Gloxinia, Achimenes, Tuberous Begonias, etc., may 
be kept in a dry cellar. For Tuberous Begonias withhold water 
until the leaves drop, then set the pots away, keeping perfectly 
dry until spring. These bulbs would keep safely if removed from 
the soil and enclosed in paper bags, suspended in a warm place. 
The Gladiolus will keep nicely in the most ordinary cellar, pro- 
viding it is frost-proof and the bulbs are not put away in a moist 
condition. Wrap in paper and suspend from the floor and they 
will keep safely. 

PLANTS FOR HOUSE CULTURE. 

The under-mentioned list of plants will be found desirable 
for house culture. In a temperature of from seventy to eighty 
degrees during the day with a decrease of ten to fifteen degrees 
during the night, the following are adapted : The Begonia, Tube- 
rose, Jasmine, Dracaena and other palms, Hoya (wax plant), 
Coleus, Caladiums (ornamental leaved). 

For a temperature of from sixty to seventy degrees during 
the day and ten to fifteen degrees less at night, the following will 
do well: Geraniums, Chinese Primrose, Heliotrope, Carnations, 
Fuchias, Calla Lillies, Rose Hibiscus, Verbenia, Amaryllis. 

The following list will grow in a cooler temperature : Vio- 
lets, Pansies, Mignonette, Cyclamens, Alyssum, Stocks, Chrysan- 
themums, Camellias and Pyrethrum. 

If your plants are not doing well, investigate your tempera- 
ture ; perhaps too hot or too cold. 

House plants are healthy for you if healthy for themselves. 
That is, a healthy-growing plant gives out pure oxygen and 
ozone, but a sick, diseased plant gives out malarious gases. Throw 
away sick plants. Health is one item to be considered in growing 



42 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

house plants ; cheerfulness another. They do us a great good by 
affording some pleasant occupation in the months that confine us. 
Window cases have gone out of style; but they are very fine 
things for all that. Have a glass case built to set down over a 
plot of plants — a stand two feet by three is a fair size. Under 
here you may grow ferns, or begonias, or caladiums, and almost 
any house plant, except heliotropes and geraniums. A larger 
case with a door is very useful. Gauge the size to the expense 
you care to incur. I have them built seven feet long and six feet 
high. A window case can be built with doors to shut when you 
sweep, if you care to stand the slight expense. Nothing hurts 
house plants more than dust in the pores. I recommend espe- 
cially a small roof -garden built over a low story of the house, and 
covered with a lean-to of glass. These for cities are available and 
furnish not only flowers, but vegetables. I have seen them full 
of cucumbers, lettuce, pie plant, etc. Many farmers can easily 
add to their houses with home labor and slight expense a lean-to 
glass house which will be profitable for growing lettuce and 
other vegetables as well as flowers. 

Try but few sorts. It is far better to have five handsome 
plants than twenty-five crowded. If much attention is paid to 
bulbs, I prefer tulips to hyacinths. The moment the first flower 
of a hyacinth spathe begins to decay, it emits a poisonous odor, a 
kind of a sensuous smell. A very fine effect can be made and 
much pleasure secured by growing a few tropical plants. I had 
an orange tree not two feet high with a dozen oranges on it, in all 
stages of development, yellow and green. There are flowers 
nearly all the time. The ficus elastica or India rubber fig is 
another grand and easily managed tree. One of the best vines 
is also a tropical, the philodendron, with great cut leaves. It is 
a bearer of fine edible fruit when it can be kept as high heat. 
The morning glory and the tropaeolum or nasturtium make 
easily-grown vines and bloom delightfully. Sow the seeds in the 
fall and they are soon on the climb and in full bloom. Of all 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GRO'WINC^. it 

winter flowers, however, my own choice goes to the ordinary gar- 
den shrubs, forced. The best are the lilac, spirea pmnifolia, 
deutzia gracilis and bush honeysuckles. Keep pots always clean 
and do not let any water stand in the saucers, except for callas. 
Water-soaked roots cause much disappointment in window 
plants. To keep bugs off, keep plants in good growth; they 
rarely attack a thoroughly healthy plant. They are scavengers. 
But if they do, use buhach and tobacco dust. For mildew, re- 
duce the moisture and dust with sulphur. But there is nothing 
so generally useful as sprinkling your plants, say twice a day. 
When you do water, do it thoroughly ; but do not be always put- 
ting on water. Use water about the temperature of your room. — 
Popular Gardening. 

CANNING AND PRESERVING FRUITS. 

Cleanse your cans thoroughly and test to see if any leak or 
are cracked. Provide a wide mouth funnel that just fits opening 
in top of can, and pour the fruit into the cans through this fun- 
nel. 

The better your fruit is selected, the finer the products of 
canning and preserving will be. Large fruits, such as Peaches, 
pears, etc., are in the best condition for canning when not quite 
fully ripe. And they should be put up at once after picking. 
Small fruits such as Berries, should never stand over night. Use 
only the best sugar, in the proportion of one-half pound of sugar 
to one pound of fruit. Vary this rule, of course, with the sweet- 
ness of the fruit. In canning for pies, omit sugar, as the natural 
flavor of the fruit is better preserved without it. And some pre- 
fer this method altogether. 

Fill your cans as full as possible and set aside for a few 
moments, When the fruit will have shrunk away a little. Fill up 
again with hot syrup, when the cans should be closed. Examine 
your canned fruit two or three days after putting up. And if 
any have leaked around the top, unseal and make into preserves, 
or use. 



44 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

The following' table will give you the time usually required 
to cook the different fruits and the quantity of sugar to use in 
canning : 

Cherries — Boil 5 minutes, using 6 ounces sugar to 1 quart of 
fruit. 

Raspberries — Boil 6 minutes, using 4 ounces sugar to 1 quart 
fruit. 

Blackberries — Boil 6 minutes, using 6 ounces sugar to 1 
quart fruit. 

Strawberries — Boil 8 minutes, using 8 ounces sugar to 1 
quart fruit. 

Plums— Boil 10 minutes, using 10 ounces sugar to 1 quart 

fruit. 

Whortleberries — Boil 5 minutes, using 8 ounces sugar to 1 
quart fruit. 

Pie Plant — Boil 10 minutes, using 8 ounces sugar to 1 quart 
fruit. 

Small Sour Pears (whole) — Boil 30 minutes, using 4 ounces 
sugar to 1 quart fruit. 

Bartlett Pears (halved) — Boil 20 minutes, using 6 ounces 
sugar to 1 quart fruit. 

Peaches — Boil 8 minutes, using 4 ounces sugar to 1 quart 
fruit. 

Peaches (whole) — Boil 15 minutes, using 4 ounces sugar to 1 
quart fruit. 

Pineapple (sliced) — Boil 15 minutes, using 6 ounces sugar 
to 1 quart fruit. 

Crab Apples — Boil 25 minutes, using 8 ounces sugar to 1 
quart fruit. 

Sour Apples (quartered) — Boil 10 minutes, using 5 ounces 
sugar to 1 quart fruit. 

Ripe Currants — Boil 6 minutes, using 8 ounces sugar to 1 
quart fruit. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 45 

Wild Grapes — Boil 10 minutes, using 8 ounces sugar to 1 
quart fruit. 

Other Grapes — Boil 10 minutes, using 4 ounces sugar to 1 
quart fruit. 

Gooseberries — Boil eight minutes, using 8 ounces sugar to 1 
quart fruit. 

Quinces (sliced) — Boil 15 minutes, using 10 ounces sugar 
to 1 quart fruit. 

Tomatoes — Boil 20 minutes, using no sugar. 

PRESERVING OF FRUITS. 

Preserves, to be perfect, must be made with the greatest care. 
Economy of time and trouble is a waste of fruit and sugar. 
The best are made by putting only a small amount of fruit at a 
time in the syrup after the latter has been carefully prepared 
and clarified. 

Peel Peaches, Pears, Quinces or Apples and throw into cold 
water as you peel them, to prevent them from turning dark. It 
is difficult to watch a large quantity so as to be sure of its being 
done right. The old rule is a pound of sugar to a pound of 
fruit. This may be varied some providing the preserves are to 
be put into sealed cans, and three-fourths of a pound of sugar to 
a pound of fruit be used. 

Quinces, Pears, Citrons and Watermelon rinds and many of 
the smaller fruits harden when put at first into a syrup made of 
their own weight of sugar. To prevent this, they should be 
cooked until tender in water. 

In preserving such fruits as Apples, Peaches, Phnns and 
Strawberries, and other fruits liable to become too soft in cook- 
ing, it is a good plan to pour the syrup hot over the fruit, or to 
sprinkle the sugar over the fruit and let stand a few hours. By 
either method the juice is extracted and the fruit hardened. Long 
boiling destroys the flavor natural to the fruit and darkens it. 



46 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

To make the syrup for preserving fruit : Take one pound of 
sugar to one-half pint of water. Put the sugar and water in por- 
celain kettle. Just before it boils stir in the white of an egg 
beaten lightly with two tablespoonfuls of water, and as it begins 
to boil, skim off the scum which arises, with care to get it all. 
Boil until no more scum arises, and then add fruit. Then boil 
or simmer until the preserves are clear. Take out each piece with 
a skimmer and put into the jars at once. Continue to stew the 
syrup, keeping the scum which arises off until the syrup begins 
to become ropy (or ropes from the spoon) . Then pour the sj^rnp 
over the fruit that has been put in jar, and seal. 

PUTTING UP FRUIT FOR EXHIBITION. 

The formulas here given are recommended by men Avho have 
had experience in preparing fruits for exhibition purposes and 
who have made successful exhibits of fruits in solution. 

The greatest care must be taken in selecting fruit, which 
should be in the best possible condition, without blemishes of any 
kind or injury from fungus diseases or insects. In doing this 
work it is necessary for the experienced person to experiment to 
a considerable degree before he can decide on any particular 
formula. After fruit has been selected, put in receptacle in which 
it is to be preserved. Cover with clean clear water and let stand 
six or seven hours, then pour off the water and rinse the fruit 
thoroughly, removing every particle of dirt from both jar and 
fruit. Then cover with liqitid as described for that kind of fruit. 
Keep fruit in dark place for three to four weeks after putting up. 

FORMULAS FOR DIFFERENT FRUITS. 

Fluid No. 1 — Formalin (or formaldehyde)- one pound ; water 
forty-four pounds; alcohol five pints. Allow the mixture to 
stand, and should there be any sediment, pour off clear liquid and 
filter the remainder. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 47 

Fluid No. 2 — Dissolve one pound borac (borocie) acid in 
forty-five pounds of water. Agitate until dissolved, then add 
five pints of alcohol. Allow it to stand and settle. Pour off the 
clear portion and filter the balance. 

Fluid No. 3— Dissolve one-half pound of zinc chloride in 
fifteen pounds of water. Agitate until dissolved, then add one 
and one-half pints of alcohol. Allow mixture to stand until it 
is settled, then pour off clear liquid and filter the balance. 

Fluid No. 4 — Sulphurous acid one pint; alcohol one pint. 
Allow mixture to stand and settle. Pour off clear liquid and 
filter the balance. 

FRUITS, WITH KIND OF PRESERVATIVE TO BE USED 

When two fluids are named, first is considered best. 
Strawberries, use No. 2 ; Red Raspberries, use No. 2 or No. 1 ; 
White Raspberries, use No. 4 or No. 3 ; Black Raspberries, use 
No. 2 ; Blackberries, use No. 2 ; Red Cherries, use No. 1 or No. 2 ; 
White Cherries, use No. 4 or No. 3 ; Black Cherries, use No. 2 ; 
Gooseberries, use No. 1 ; Grapes, red or black, use No. 1 or No. 2 ; 
Grapes, green or yellow, use No. 4; Grapes, white, use No. 4; 
Apples, green russet, use No. 2 ; Apples, more or less red, use 
No. 2; Apples, white or yellow, use No. 4; Pears, russet, use 
No. 3 ; Pears, green or yellow, use No. 4 ; Plums, dark colored, use 
No. 1 or No. 2 ; Plums, green or yellow, use No. 4 ; Peaches, Apri- 
cots, Nectarines and Quinces, use No. 3. 



THi: APPLi: AND HOW TO GROW IT 

BY G. B. BRACKETT. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Every farmer, however small his possessions may be, who 
lives within the apple-growing districts of the United States, 
should have an apple orchard, the product of which should be 
found on his table in some form every day. of the year. It is 
the purpose of this bulletin to present briefly some of the rea- 
sons wliy the farmers of this country should give more atten- 
tion to the planting and care of their orchards; to aid them in 
the selection of orchard sites, of the varieties they may profit- 
ably plant, and of the trees that will prove most thrifty and 
productive ; and to give information as to after care of orchards 
and the best use and disposition to be made of the fruit when 
grown and ready for family use or market. If this should stim- 
ulate the apple industry among our farmers, although it be only 
for home use, it will be a sufficient reward for the preparation 
and publication of this treatise. 

The possible range of apple growing within the territory of 
the United States is very great. Perhaps two-thirds of the set- 
tled portion of our country is more or less adapted to the- growth 
of this staple fruit, and within that range there -are but few 
cases where the farmer is excusable if he allows his family to go 
hungry for apples. 

HISTORICAL NOTES. 

Although the apple (Pyrus malus) is not a native of Amer- 
ican soil, it seems to find a congenial home here. It is true we 
have some nearly related species in our native crabs, and they 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 49 

give promise in the hands of the experimenter of better things 
in the years to come, but as yet no specially valuable varieties 
have been developed from this source. Our cultivated apples 
and crabs are the lineal descendants of the wild crabs of Europe, 
Pyrus malus and Pyrus baccata, which have had many years 
of careful culture bestowed upon them to bring them to our 
present standard of excellence. When our American species 
have had as many years of domestic life and careful culture be- 
stowed upon them they may rival their foreign cousins in many 
o£ their good qualities. In a short treatise like this, addressed 
as it is to the plain, practical fanners of our country, it may not 
be expected that an elaborate, scientific explanation of all the 
methods of improving and domesticating a wild species will be 
presented and discussed. It is deemed sufficient, therefore, un- 
der the present heading to say that the apple in its cultivated 
varieties as grown in this country is a foreigner, but," like the 
Caucasian race of man, has found a congenial home in the major 
portion of the United States and in large areas of the adjacent 
territory of British America. 

USES OF THE APPLE. 

So Avell known are the uses of the apple that little need be 
said upon this subject. No fruit known to the cultivator in the 
north temperate zone can take the place of the apple as a food 
product. Many other fruits, indeed most cultivated fruits, rank 
as luxuries, but the apple in most parts of the United States is 
one of the leading staple products of the farm. 

In its numerous varieties its season of maturity extends 
throughout the year. No other fruit of the temperate zone may 
thus be had in continuous succession without resorting to artifi- 
cial means of preservation. It is pre-eminently useful in the 
household economy. As a culinary fruit none excels it. It 
graces the table in a greater variety of forms than any other, 
and as a dessert fruit few are its equal and none its superior. 



50 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

Its juice when extracted makes an excellent and wholesome bev- 
erage, and for vinegar it has no rival. As a market fruit it is 
one of the easiest and least expensive to handle, and usually 
finds a ready market if well grown and handled with that end 
in view. 

Among the many ways in which the apple is now used, the 
•manufacture of jellies and preserves is one of growing impor- 
tance. The numerous factories for the manufacture of these 
goods which have sprung up all over the apple-growing region of 
the country have not only created a demand for second and third 
grade apples, but also for the waste products — cores and skins — 
resulting from drying and evaporating the fruit. It has been 
found that jellies made from this apple waste is almost as good 
as those manufactured from whole fruit. These waste products 
have not only a value for the uses above mentioned, but there 
is a growing demand for them for export purposes for the manu- 
facture of cheap wines and cider. 

Chops, for which there is also ready sale for export pur- 
poses, are made from the lower-grade apples by chopping the 
whole fruit into coarse pieces and converting by an evaporator 
into what- is known as chops. 

Apple butter of the real, rich, old-time farm product, not 
the thin, factory-made excuse, fills an important place in the 
household economy and always finds a ready sale at good prices. 

Good sweet cider made from sound apples, not from half- 
decayed, wormy fruit, is one of the most healthful , products of 
the orchard, and all siirplus over and above what is needed for 
home consumption is always in demand at remunerative prices. 
It can be kept sweet and unfermented by heating it to a temper- 
ature of 160 degrees F. and holding it there for thirty minutes, 
then sealing it up tight in bottles or casks, to be put into a 
cool place. 

Boiled cider made in the good old-fashioned way by reduc- 
ing to one-fifth by boiling, and canned, makes an excellent arti- 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 51 

cle for culinary purposes, for making apple butter, apple sauce, 
or for use in apple or mince pies. It also has a commercial value. 
While the aim and purpose of the farmer should be to sup- 
ply an abundance of fruit for his own family, he should also 
be able to offer to the outside world a liberal surplus. The apple 
orchard will often bring him better returns for his outlay than 
any other portion of his farm, acre for acre. The product of a 
single tree will sometimes sell for $10 or more, and fifty such 
trees can be grown on an acre of land. Though we may not 
always count' on such large results, we may safely expect the 
orchard to do its full duty one year with another, especially if we 
first do our duty by it. 

PROPAGATION. - 

We would not recommend the average farmer to propagate 
his own trees for planting, but it is well enough for him to un- 
derstand something of the processes and methods of propagation 
commonly practiced. The natural method of propagation is by 
planting the seed of the fruit, but as a very large per cent, of 
seedlings are inferior in quality to the parent variety, the re- 
sults are too uncertain to recommend for planters generally. 
Only the painstaking experimenter who wishes to originate new 
varieties can afford to practice this natural method of propaga- 
tion. 

Once having obtained a valuable variety and wishing to 
multiply and perpetuate it, one of several methods now in use 
must be resorted to for propagation. The methods more com- 
monly practiced in growing young apple trees for planting in 
orchards are budding and grafting. 

BUDDING. 

With the apple this operation must be performed during 
the growing season, and consists in removing a bud from a 
twig of the variety which we wish to propagate and inserting 



52 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

it beneath the bark of the stock or young seedling tree we wish 
to change; and this is then held in place by tying it fast until 
the bud and stock have united. Then by forcing the sap and 
consequent growth into this transplanted bud by preventing all 
other growth, we get a new tree of the desired variety. This we 
call budding. It is a method of artificially multiplying a desir- 
able variety. The extent of this multiplication is limited only 
by the number of buds available. A budding knife and the suc- 
cessive stages of budding are shown in Fig. 1. 

The main requisite for success in budding is a healthy, 
growing condition of the stock on which the work is to be done 
and a certain state of maturity of the buds. The bark of the 
stock must separate freely, so that the bud may be forced under 
it without injury to the cambiimi layer of either bud or stock. 
The bud sticks or scions selected for summer budding should be 
of the current year's growth and should have well-developed 
buds. "When taken from the tree the leaves must be cut off im- 
mediately, leaving only a short stub of the leaf stem for con- 
venience in handling during the operation. (Fig. 1, b). They 
should be kept in a fresh condition by use of damp moss or wet 
cloth until using, and not more than one or two scions should be 
withdrawn from the package at a time. 

June Budding. — If it is desired to start the bud into growth 
the same season it is inserted, the budding should be done as 
early in the season as well-developed buds can be obtained. As 
soon as it is found that the bud has united with the stock or 
branch, the material used to fasten the bud in pla"ce must be 
removed and the stock or branch cut back to within a short dis- 
tance from the bud, to force the growth of the inserted bud. 

Late Fall Budding.— This is the kind of budding more com- 
monly practiced among nurserymen, the buds being inserted into 
the stock as late in the season as the bark of the stock will sepa- 
rate freely to receive it. In such instances the bud remains dor- 
mant through the following winter. The following spring the 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 53 

wrapping is removed and wherever the buds appear sound the 
tops of the stocks are cut back and treated in the same manner 
as described for June budding. All buds on the stocks below 
the one inserted should be rubbed off as they start to grow. The 
objection to early, or June, budding is that the growth from 
such buds does not always mature sufficiently in northern sec- 
tions to pass a severely cold winter without injury. 

GRAFTING. 

Grafting, unlike budding, is usually performed during the 
dormant period of growth. It is performed by carefully fitting 
a small dormant twig or scion of the variety we wish to propa- 
gate into a cut in a stock or seedling tree which we wish to 
change. There are several forms of grafting, but they differ 
more in method than in results. In fact, so far as the top of the 
tree is concerned the results are the same in all cases whether 
we bud or graft. The object sought is to change an undesir- 
able or uncertain tree into one -which we know will produce a 
certain variety whose fruit will possess certain desirable char- 
acteristics. 

Splice Grafting. — This is a simple form and is used when 
the stock and scion are very nearly the same size. It consists 
in splicing or lapping the scion on the stock by scarfing each at 
the same angle. (Fig 2, a.) When a close joint is secured the 
parts are held in place by means of some kind of wrapping ma- 
terial. (Fig. 2, d.) 

Tongue Grafting. — This fonn differs from splice grafting 
in that both scion and stock are split at corresponding points on 
the scarf with a thin-bladed knife so as to form tongues as rep- 
resented in Fig. 2, b and c. The object of this is to unite more 
firmly the two portions and present a larger surface for the 
effusion of cell tissue, and to promote the callousing process, 
is the method commonly practiced by nurserymen under the 
name of root grafting. 



54 



IRRIGATION FRUIT G-ROWING. 



Eoot Grafting. — Thrifty one-year-old stocks grown from 
seed are taken np in the fall and stored in a cellar or buried in 
the soil, where they will keep fresh and be accessible at any time 
in winter when wanted. The scions having been secured in the 
fall, the work of grafting may be performed at any time during 
the winter. The roots only are used in this method and they may 



ii 



d 






iProcTor 

Fig. 2. — Successive steps of stock grafting; a, splice graft; b, tongue 
graft, separate parts; c, tongue graft, parts united; d, wax applied. 

be cut in two or more sections according to their size and length 
or the desire of the propagator. But the larger or stronger roots 
as a rule may be relied upon for the most satisfactory results. 
In the foregoing methods of grafting, but especially in the 
first, the parts must be held together by some kind of bandage 
or tie. This may be made of thin cotton cloth or tough manila 



a 




3.procfor-del, 



^^^•. l-~S"'i'5"lg': a, budding- knife; b, bud stick; c, incision lensth- 
UH^i\°v,'"°1f ""^K^^ ^°P: ^' opening: of bark for insertion of bud; e 
Dving tlie bud; f, inserting tlie bud; g, bud inserted; h, tying in the 



wise 

removing 

bud. 



56 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



paper spread with melted grafting wax and when cool cut or 
torn in narrow strips of convenient width for wrapping, as de- 
scribed in formula No. 2 for grafting wax. But the most 
common method now practiced is in using cotton yarn drawn 




t 



d 



/' 



u 



i.ProcToi 

Fig. 3. — Root graftin: a, scion and root separate; b, scion and root 
united; c, scion and root united and tied; d, united scion and root witli 
dotted line sliowing- wliere root may be divided. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



57 



through melted wax and wound upon a spool, from which it is 
used when wanted (Fig. 3). 

These root grafts, after having been tied in bundles, with 
each variety separately labeled, may be packed away in moist 
earth or loam and left .in the cellar free from frost until spring, 
when they should be planted in nursery rows in the open ground 
and cultivated for one, two, or three years, when they are ready 
to be transplanted to the orchard site. 

Thorough cultivation in the nursery rows should be given, 
and some attention should be paid to training or shaping the 
young trees, so as to insure the best results when transplanted 
in the orchard. 

Top Grafting. — The top working of orchard trees is con- 
cerned with the insertion of buds or scions in the tops of the 





Fis 



4. — Cleft grafting- 
insertion; 



5 Prorfor 



a, splitting the stock; b, scion prepared for 
c, scien inserted. 



trees after they are established in the orchard. It may be prac- 
ticed upon trees of bearing age which it is desirable to trans- 
form into better sorts; or it may refer also* to trees recently 
planted which may be top-worked for other purposes. The fruit 



58 iRRK^AtlON FRUIT GROWING. 

grower may have planted varieties that are not adapted to his 
climate conditions, or when the orchard reaches bearing age, 
may find that the varieties are not true to name and are inferior 
or even worthless. In many of the orchards that have been 
planted, the trees are of varieties that were brought from sec- 
tions having entirely different climatic conditions, and as they 
are not adapted to your locality, the orchards have been un- 
profitable. Under any of the conditions mentioned, it may be 
possible to convert the orchard into a paying investment by top 
working the trees with buds or scions of better kinds, and it is 
this form of top working that is most widely known and prac- 
ticed. Top working may be useful also in building up broken 
down tops of highly prized trees. It may be employed in graft- 
ing varieties into the tops of self-sterile trees to insure cross 
pollination. It may be practiced in reforming the tops of trees 
like the peach, and it is especially useful in testing "new varie- 
ties by bringing them into early bearing by top working them 
into bearing trees. 

Grafting Wax and Tools Used. — Grafting wax No. 1 ; one 
pound of tallow ; two pounds of beeswax ; three pounds of rosin. 
Mix all together, heat to boiling point, stirring constantly, and 
then dump into a tub of cold water. Then work like taffy. Use 
warm. Grafting wax No. 2 : The common grafting wax of the 
French gardeners is of two kinds. The first is melted and laid 
on with a brush in a fluid state and is made: Pitch one-half 
pound ; beeswax, one-half pound, cow dung, one pound. 

The second which is spread while warm on strips of coarse 
cotton or strong paper, and wrapped directly around the graft, 
answering at once to tie and protect it. It is composed of equal 
parts of beeswax, turpentine and rosin. 

Cut the limb off square and smooth with a sharp fine-toothed 
saw. Then split stub- to a depth of two or two and one-half 
inches with grafting chisel. Then reverse chisel and drive in 
wedge to hold cleft open while grafts or scions are being placed 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. - 59 

in position (as in cut shown). Push scions down to first bud or 
deeper and have fit tightly. The line of separation between the 
bark and Avood in the scion must meet the similar line in the rock, 
similar line in the stock. 

Cover the wounds and the top end of scion with wax so as 
to completely exclude the air from the entire wound made. It 
is customary to insert two scions, one on each side of stock (or 
limb) cut for top grafting. 

The practice of top grafting is a success when a tree has 
fruited and the fruit has not been found desirable or valuable 
as the tree has grown and can have its entire top removed and 
any desired variety grafted upon it. Top grafting is done in the 
spring. The best time being when the leaves are just coming 
out. 

Scions are always taken from mature wood of the previous 
season's growth. Only the lower, maturer portion of the shoot 
can be used, as the upper part is nearly always immature and 
consequently fails to grow. The number of scions that can be 
cut from one twig will depend on its length ; ordinarily they are 
made about four inches long. 

WHOLE OR PIECE ROOT GRAFTING. 

Which has had extensive airing all over the country. When 
brought down or boiled down to its true position amounts abso- 
lutely to the following : 

In an arid country like this the best trees are obtained by 
using scions six to eight inches in length with a shorter section 
of apple seedling and the development of more scion roots. This 
method gives the strongest, hardiest and most abundant root 
system to withstand the peculiar disadvantages of our dry win- 
ters. By using a limited number of varieties and establishing 
them on strong, vigorous root systems of their own they become 
much superior in hardihood to those miserable things known 
as root grafts in which the whole seedling is used in propagation 



60 IRRIGATION; FRUIT GROWING. 

with the result that the root has only the variable hardihood of 
the seedling. We have noticed that certain varieties like Genet, 
no matter how grafted, always develop tap roots and we are 
further convinced that the root of a tree is largely under the 
control of the scion which develops roots in accord with its own 
habits. We all know the habit of the black walnut. This tree 
has deep tap roots which, when cut off by digging, resume their 
effort to penetrate deeply into the soil. A friend of ours over 
on the western slope recently dug out some peach trees and 
found that they had rooted from six to eight feet deep in the 
heavy adobe soil in which the orchard was planted. Each tree 
naturally endeavors to develop roots in accord with its own sys- 
tem. While budding is excellent for the east where the ground 
in winter is covered and the roots are protected by heavy snow, 
in the arid regions constantly subject to dry winters, we see the 
utmost need of developing scion roots with the hardihood belong- 
ing to the tree. 

At the meeting of the Kansas State Horticultural Society 
last December, the subject of "Whole vs. Piece Roots" came up 
for discussion. It was the general opinion that nothing is gained 
by planting the more expensive whole root trees. President 
Wellhouse gave his experience as follows : 

' ' In 1876 we planted out about 30,000 grafts and some 4,000 
or 5,000 of whole roots. We had heard a great deal about these 
whole roots, so we planted about 5,000. We ran a dead furrow 
and put the lister in and made the furrow just as deep as we 
could get it, and when we planted the whole roots we had to take 
a spade and dig down still further. We took them all up at two 
years old and planted about 30,000 which were from piece roots 
of the usual length — two inches. In the orchard there were two 
rows of Missouri Pippins and two rows of Ben Davis on whole 
roots planted in the spring of 1878, and growing there now. If 
any man can tell the difference, he can do more than I can. 
The only difference I saw jn that time was that the whole roots 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 61 

sent up more seedling sprouts and caused us lots of work, but 
so far as the longevity of the trees was concerned we could see 
no difference. But they were terrible things to sprout. About 
nine-tenths of our two-inch roots, when we took them up from 
the nursery, had sent out roots from the scion, and the more we 
experimented in that line the more we desired them that way; 
and from that time on we have used only short roots, to get the 
roots from the scion, and have always been satisfied with them. 
Whenever you' pay one mill more for a whole root than a piece 
root you are out just that much money. We examined the trees 
that had the short piece of root and found the roots above the 
graft hardy and vigorous. It reminds me of a potato. After the 
potato vine is well started the old piece of potato is there, seem- 
ingly alive, yet it is of no apparent use after the potato has 
sprouted. It is the same with the old apple roots. I have ex- 
amined them after five years and found the two-inch piece of 
root in the same condition as when planted, while the new roots 
all came out from the scion and made them healthy trees on their 
own roots. We have practiced and watched this matter for 
about twenty-five years. The whole root business is one of the 
biggest humbugs ever perpetrated on credulous people." 

Prof. W. L. Howard of the Missouri State Agricultural 
College says on the subject of whole and piece roots: "Experi- 
ments conducted by the government fruit stations, after expe- 
rience with four years' growth, conclude there is no difference 
in the growth and vitality of a tree, whether grown from whole 
or piece root graft and that whether nursery stock is called whole 
root or piece root." 

The whole root argument has been made in most, if not in 
all cases, by nursery salesmen solely to secure orders. Not that 
their nurseries grew them extensively. And experience along 
this line has developed the fact that a long scion and a piece 
root are the exact thing for this arid climate. 



LAYING DOWN OF PEACH TREES 



BY WENDELL PADDOCK. 

Peach growing, from a commercial standpoint in Colorado, 
is largely confined to the western slope of the mountains. The 
trees find a congenial home in many localities in several counties, 
consequently large areas are devoted to the cultivation of this 
fruit. Peaches have been extensively tested in various fruit sec- 
tions east of the mountains, and in the Arkansas valley in par- 
ticular an occasional fine crop is produced. Indeed some of the 
best exhibits at the State Fair last fall were grown in this sec- 
tion. But in four years out of five, perhaps, late spring frosts 
or extreme cold in winter destroy the buds. North of the Valley, 
peaches are rarely produced unless the trees are protected in 
some manner. 

This experience, when success was just within reach, stimu- 
lated the growers in their efforts to overcome climatic conditions. 
Various devices were tried for protecting the trees during the 
winter and spring. These included wrapping the trees with cloth 
or covering with corn stalks, evergreen boughs, boards and, in 
fact, most anything that was at hand that might afford protec- 
tion, but after several years trial, these methods were found to be 
of little use. In the fall of 1896, Hon. W. B. Felton, of Canon 
City, began experimenting with laying trees down, using two 
trees in this first trial. Mr. Felton was closely in this work by 
Mr. C. C. Richard, also of Canon City, and to these two men be- 
long the credit of working out this system of protecting trees in 
Colorado. And, in fact, after a rather hasty consultation of 
horticultural literature, I do not find any record of this method 
of protecting trees having been tried at an earlier date. 

From this modest beginning an industry has sprung that is 





Fig-. 1. — Three-year-old tree in full bloom. 




Fig. 2. — Mr. C. C. Rickard in his ten-year-old orchard. 



64 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWlNa. 

now assuming no mean proportions in that vicinity. A large num- 
ber of fruit growers have planted peach trees varying from a few 
to several hundred in number. Mr. Rickard is, perhaps, still the 
largest grower, having now 1,000 trees in bearing. 

The method of planting an orchard with the intention of 
laying the trees down during the winter, does not differ ma- 
terially from that which is ordinarily observed. Some, however, 
claim that when the tree is planted the roots should be spread 
out on either side of the tree at right angles to the direction in 
which it is to be laid down. Mr. Rickard pays no attention to 
placing the roots, claiming that in a few years the roots spread so 
that any evidence of training is lost. Others make a point of set- 
ting the trees close enough in the row so that when laid down 
the tops of one tree shall overlap the base of another. The roots 
are thus afforded protection as well as the tops. 

The following data furnished by Mr. Rickard is given in de- 
tail as it represents the experience, not only of the largest grower, 
but of one who has had the longest experience in this method of 
growing peaches. As is true with many horticultural operations, 
there are different ways of doing the same thing, consequently 
other growers differ with these instructions in points of minor 
detail, but in general, the process must be the same. 

Yearling trees are set in the spring and the'y should be laid 
down the first winter, repeating the process each season during 
the life of the tree. In this instance no attention is given to 
training or placing the roots. As soon as the trees have shed 
their leaves and the wood is well ripened, they are ready for 
winter quarters. This is usually in the fore part of November, 
in the vicinity of Canon City. The first step in the operation 
consists in removing the earth from a circle about four feet in 
diameter around the tree. When sufficient trees have been 
treated in this manner to make the work progress advanta- 
geously, water is turned into the hollows. After the ground has 
become saturated, the trees are worked back and forth and the 




Appearance of same row on April 25 and on Seotember 20 
Orchard of J. J. Lewis, Canon City. ~ 



66 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

they are pushed over in the direction that offers the least resist- 
ance. "When treated in this manner the trees go over easily and 
water follows the roots, loosening the soil around them so that 
with comparatively little injury to the root sysem. That is, pro- 
viding he trees have been laid down each year. It is difficult to 
handle old trees in this manner that have never been laid down, 
and usually it will not pay to try. 

After the trees are on the ground, further work should be 
delayed until the ground has dried sufficiently to admit of ease 
in walking, and in the handling of the dirt. The limbs may now 
be brought together with a cord, and so lessen the work of cover- 
ing. 

After experimenting with many kinds of coverings, burlap 
held in place with earth has proved the most satisfactory. The 
burlap is spread out over the prostrate tree top, as shown in the 
photographs, taking special pains to protect the blossom buds 
from coming in direct contact with the earth covering. A light 
layer of earth is now thrown over the tree and the protection is 
complete. 

The critical time in growing peaches by this method is in 
the spring when growing weather begins. Close watch must be 
kept to see that the blossoms do not open prematurely, or that the 
branch buds are not forced into tender, white growth. When the 
blossom buds begin to open, the covering should be loosened so as 
to admit light and air, but it should not all be removed. More 
of the covering should be removed as the weather gets warmer, 
but the blossoms must be exposed to the sun gradually. 

Air and light are, of course, necessary for proper fertiliza- 
tion of the flowers, but after this process is complete and the 
fruit is set, all danger from the weather is considered. as being 
over. The trees arc usually raised about the middle of May at 
Canon City. 

R-aising the trees is, of _ course, a simple task. The ground 
is again watered and when wet enough the trees are raised. To 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 67 

be sure, trees that have been treated in this manner will not 
usually stand upright unsupported. Consequently they are 
propped up at an angle, usually two props being required to 
keep the wind from swaying them. 

When 'this method of growing peaches was first presented 
before the State Horticultural Society by Senator Felton, it was 
received with not a little sarcasm by some of the members, but 
the practicability of laying down trees is now no longer ques- 
tioned. The constantly increasing acreage of peaches at Canon 
City proves that it pays. The actual expense is, of course, diffi- 
cult to estimate, because of the attention required in the spring. 
The cost of the fall work can be estimated, however, as it has been 
found that tAvo men will lay down and cover twenty-five of the 
largest trees in a day. 

This process seems to be in no way detrimental to the health 
of the trees, since they live as long and bear as much fruit ac- 
cording to size of the top as those grown in peach sections. It 
is, of course, necessary to cut out the wide spreading branches 
and thus reduce the size of the top in order to lessen the work of 
covering. 

The following is the record of yields as given by Mr. Rick- 
ard : In 1902, 150 ten-year-old trees and 350 nine-year-old trees 
produced fifteen tons of fruit, or at the rate of sixty pounds 
per tree. In 1901 the yield was almost the same, but in 1900, 
twenty, tons, or eighty pounds of fruit per tree was secured. 

The marketing of peaches grown on this farm has thus far 
been a simple matter, as most of the fruit is sold at the orchard, 
and at prices ranging from 3 cents a pound for culls to 10 cents 
for fancy stock, the average price being 6 cents a pound. So 
long as the fruit can be sold in this way the expense of packages 
is reduced to a minimum. 

But how about growing peaches in this manner north of the 
Arkansas valley? Can it be done? Most assuredly it can, and 
it is done every year, but only in a small way, and the trees are 



68 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

SO few and in siieh widely separated neighborhoods that they 
attract little attention. The most successful attempt of which 
I know has been made at Berthoud, a town fifty miles north of 
Denver, by M. H. Warfle. Mr. Warfle's experience is summed 
up in the following paragraph : 

"I have thirty peach trees. In 1901, the second year after 
planting, I had about twenty-five boxes of fruit. In 1902, fifty 
boxes, and the outlook is good for a big crop this year. The va- 
rieties I grow are Alexander, Triumph, Mountain Rose, Bokara 
No. 3 and Elberta. Any good variety will do well if they are 
laid down." 

These few pages are written not with the idea of presenting 
anything new, but to draw attention to the fact that peaches 
can be grown with a certain amount of profit in most of our 
fruit growing regions. But the pleasure to be derived from a 
home supply of thisluscious fruit should not be underestimated. 
The peaches grown at Canon City always command a higher 
price on the home market because they are of better quality when 
allowed to ripen on the tree. Those that are shipped in must be 
picked before fully ripe in order to stand transportation. 

In many parts of the state the price of peaches is so great 
that many families are compelled to do without. But by using 
this method of laying down the trees, as worked out by the pio- 
neer fruit growers of Canon City, the small land holder can pro- 
vide his family with peaches of much better quality than can be 
bought on the market, and with little expense. 



MECHANICAL INJURIES TO WHICH 
FRUIT TREES ARE SUDJE:CT 



By C. S. Crandall. 

The disease we have attempted to discuss is only one of the 
many sources of injury to which our fruit plants are liable. 
Aside from the numerous insect pests which are demanding 
constant attention, we have a long list of parasitic iungi, and 
certain other mechanical injuries which result from peculiarities 
of climate. Some of these deserve brief mention here. 

The mechanical injuries referred to are commonly spoken 
of as "frost-crack" and "sun-scald," and both are referred to 
a combined action of sun and frost. Most of the cases of so- 
called sun-scald that have come under my observation have 
proved to be cases of blight upon the trunk or large branches. 
They are characterized by dark, discolored areas of dead bark, 
commonly circular or elliptical, but sometimes irregular in form, 
and most frequently, though not always, on the side exposed to 
the sun. The dead bark as it dries shrinks and adheres closely 
to the wood. 

Frost cracks occur upon the exposed side of the trunk, ex- 
tending longitudinally. They are produced in winter and early 
spring under the influence of extreme low temperatures, and 
may, when growth starts, close and entirely heal. The liability 
of trees to injury of this character depends mainly upon the 
amount of water contained within the tissues. Trees that grow 
late, and enter the winter with wood not thoroughly ripened, 
and hence containing more water, are more susceptible to injury 
than those that are enabled to ripen and harden the wood. Even 
well ripened wood contains normally about forty per cent, of 
water. Trunks of apple trees cut on the 15th day of January, 



70 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

1897, when last weighed, on the 8th of January, 1898, showed 
a loss of water by air drying of 39.36 per cent, and branches 
from the same trees lost in the same time 42.24 per cent. The. 
weights are not yet quite constant, but the figures may be taken 
as an approximate showing of the moisture contained in normal 
issues in midwinter. But this moisture is not in the easily freez- 
able liquid form; it is distributed as a constituent of cell wall, 
and in the viscid or solid cell contents, and can only be with- 
drawn and crystallized under the prolonged action of extreme 
cold. Suppose a tree thus normally constituted to be subjected, 
during the winter or early spring, to a period of warm, bright 
weather. The influence of the sun's rays penetrates the tissues, 
the cell contents become less viscid, water taken in by the roots 
still further liquifies these cell contents, there is movement 
within the cells and they become turgid with fluid sap. A sud- 
den change marked by temperatures below zero occurs. There 
is a gradual shrinking of the tissues until the point of actual 
freezing, or crystallization is reached, and then comes that famil- 
iar and seemingly resistless expansion. If the sap-gorged tissues 
escaped rupture during the process of shrinking they are sure 
to yield to the expansive force accompanying congelation. 

This form of injury is usually worse on plums, cherries 
and peaches, than upon apples and pears. The cracks are less 
likely to heal; they more often increase in size, and the exuda- 
tion of gum is followed by rot which leads to the death of the 
tree. 

With all trees this trouble can be in large measure pre- 
vented by providing some protection against the sun. This pro- 
tection is most needed when the trees are young; as they attain 
size they in a measure protect each other. Various devices have 
been used, but we find wrapping with burlap the cheapest and 
most effective. Burlap that has been used for baling was pur- 
chased at dry goods stores at 2 cents per pound. One pound 
supplies twelve strips four inches wide and three feet long, and 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. Yl 

One strip is sufficient for a reasonably low-headed tree three to 
five years in orchard. The burlap being cut and strings of 
proper length at hand, one man will wrap the trees at the rate 
of sixty an hour. The cost is thus nominal and the protection 
afforded ample. 

More serious than the frost crack is that mechanical injury 
which is characterized by a separation of the bark from the 
wood. It has thus far been reported upon apple trees only, and 
most of the cases of which I have knowledge occurred in the 
southern portion of the state. 

The separation between wood and bark in those cases ex- 
amined occurred near the ground, and was not noticeably con- 
fined to any particular side. 

In most cases the bark appeared discolored over a portion 
of the separated area, and more or less ruptured as if from lat- 
eral tension in drying. Between the discolored portion and the 
limits of the affected areas the separated bark often appeared 
perfectly healthy, and in some cases new growth was protrud- 
ing into the space between bark and wood. A few cases were 
found that gave no visible sign of injury beyond a slight change 
from the normal color of the bark. There was nothing to indi- 
cate the size of the aft'ected areas ; the bark was smooth and ap- 
parently healthy, but when struck emitted the hollow sound that 
proved a sure test of the extent of the injury. In eases of this 
kind it would seem that considerable time might elapse between 
the working of the cause and the discovery of its effect, and I 
apprehend that the first evidence of injury would be seen in a 
generally unhealthy appearance of the foliage of the tree. Of 
course, if the trunk was affected to the extent of girdling it, the 
tree would soon die. If the affected area was confined to one 
side the tree might endure for some years, but with vitality di- 
minished in proportion to the extent of the injury. 

Where small areas only are affected the tree may by the in- 
trusion of newly formed tissue, completely cover the denuded 



72 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

wood and thus effect a cure. Fron; the location of this trouble 
beneath the bark, and from the tardy appearance of any evi- 
dence of injury, it is clear that a practical demonstration of the 
cause would be difficult if not impossible. I am not aware that 
any actual demonstration of the working of the cause has ever 
been made. Since the trouble became known its origin has been 
assigned to the action of frost, but there was no tangible basis 
for the assumption until the matter was taken up and critically 
studied by Professor Burrill of Illinois. The results of his ob- 
servations and the theoretical deductions from them were pre- 
sented in a paper before the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science at the Ann Arbor meeting in 1885. After 
explaining frost cracks, and the phenomena attending the crys- 
tallization of liquids by frosts, he says — ' ' The second form of 
injury — especially prevalent in apple trees — is believed to be due 
to the growth of ice crystals studding in a close or dense layer, 
the surface upon which they form. Such miniature forests of 
crystals can be found in green plants even after slight freezing, 
as well as in ripened wood in severely low temperatures." The 
process of crystal growth is further explained as follows : "In 
the trunks of trees the crystallizations begin in any part where 
there is proportionally most pure water. The very process of 
solidification causes, by the law of equal diffusion, a movement 
of water from adjoining parts, toward the point from which the 
first liquid (as such) is removed. Hence the ice crystals first 
formed constantly grow, attracting as it were the water from 
neighboring parts of the tissue. This growth of the crystals, 
associated as they occur in close layers, pushes asunder the nor- 
mally connected tissues." The theory here given being based 
upon careful observations, and being in perfect accord with 
physical laws has been accepted as the true explanation of the 
trouble under discussion. It will be noted that the operation 
of the theory depends upon the presence of fluid sap, and that 
the greater the water content of the tree the more liable it is to 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 73 

injury. It follows that the same conditions that protect against 
other frost injuries will protect against this. Fruit growers 
should therefore use every endeavor to thoroughly ripen the 
wood of the trees before winter sets in and thus reduce the lia- 
bility to injury from frost to the minimum. 

FUNGOUS DISEASES. 

Leaf Blight or Rust of the Strawberry. — This is a cosmo- 
politan disease due to the parasitic fungus known as Sphserella 
fragarife. While our climae conditions are in general unfa- 
vorable for the development of this disease, we do occasionally 
have periods during which it does injury. Moisture is necessary 
for the germination of the spores, and the fungus can spread to 
an injurious extent only during moist and warm weather. The 
month of June, 1895, was marked by prevailing high tempera- 
ture and frequent showers, and during that time the disease 
did considerable damage to strawberry beds about Fort Collins. 
This past season the disease started under somewhat similar 
conditions toward the latter part of May, but showers becoming" 
less frequent it did no serious damage. 

All growers are familiar with the purple or red spots which 
mark the presence of this disease. These spots enlarge and be- 
come of a brown color; finally, by the growth of the spores be- 
neath, the cuticle is ruptured and they then appear white at 
the center with a brownish ring outside., Affected leaves soon 
turn brown throughout and die. 

This loss of foliage saps the vitality of the plant, and if 
the attack comes early in the season it prevents the development 
of a full crop of fruit. If the attack comes after the fruit has 
been harvested the plants are weakened so that the crop for the 
next year will amount to nothing, or at least be shortened, de- 
pending upon the severity of the attack. As the mycelial 
threads of the fungus are within the leaf tissues it is apparent 
that preventive, rather than curative measures, must be re- 



74 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

sorted to. The fungus survives the winter within the leaf, both 
by pores and by its mycelium. It follows that the destruction 
of infested leaves in the fall is important as a means of holding 
the disease in check. The practice of mowing the old leaves 
after the fruit has been removed and then burning is not to be 
recommended because it sometimes results in injury. It is better 
to rake the leaves off the bed for burning and then by cultiva- 
tion and the application of fertilizer induce a vigorous new 
growth preparatory to fruiting the next season. 

The simplest and most effective way of controlling the dis 
ease is, however, by spraying with any of the standard fungi- 
cides adapted for application to foliage. The following have 
been successfully used. Hyposulphite of soda, one pound to ten 
gallons of water, applied every ten day-s. Modified "Eau cel- 
este" made as follows — Dissolve one pound copper sulphate in 
two gallons of water; in another vessel dissolve one pound of 
sodium carbonate; mix these two solutions and when chemical 
action has ceased add one and one-half pints of ammonia. Di- 
Irate to twenty-five gallons. Ammoniacal copper carbonate made 
by dissolving three ounces copper carbonate in one quart of 
ammonia, and diluting to twenty-five gallons. Three or four 
applications of the copper solutions are usually sufficient. 

ORANGE RUST OF BLACKBERRIES AND RASPBERRIES. 

This disease has been reported from Arvada and other 
places near Denver, and has been present in Fort Collins 
for the past three years. It has not been particularly destruc- 
tive, but the damage done is sufficient to warrant a word of cau- 
tion. Eastern growers have in many places suffered severely 
from the disease, and it would be well to profit by their expe- 
rience and use every effort to exterminate it. The cause of this 
disease is a true fungus (C^eoma nitens which has been known 
under various names since 1820.) 

Its presence has been reported from nearly every state east 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 75 

of the mountains ; it is common in Canada, and is also known in 
Europe. Apparently it is confined in its work to plants of the 
one genus-Kubus, but has been observed on nearly every species' 
of the genus. It works on wild as well as on cultivated plants, 
and appears to prefer some species to others. As between the 
dewberry and the blackberry it works most upon the dewberry; 
and between the black and red raspberries the blacks are more 
susceptible to attack. The disease also shows choice of varieties. 
Thus, the Kittatinny and the Erie blackberries seem much more 
susceptible to attack than do Snyder and Wilson. 

The presence of the disease can be detected quite early in 
the spring in the tufted slender shoots w^hich are produced, and 
in the glandular appearance given to some of the new leaves by 
an early and little understood spore form which the fungus 
produces. Later, about the 1st of June, the Aecidium or cluster 
cup spore formation may be looked for. The cluster cups first 
appear as small raised spots covering the under surface of the 
leaves; soon the skin is ruptured, the cups containing the spore 
masses protrude, and then we have that characteristic appear- 
ance which suggested the name orange iLust. 

This, the fruiting stage of the fungus, is conspicuous, and 
cannot fail to attract attention, but it is not all there is to the 
plant. 

The vegetative portion consisting of very minute threads 
which ramify through the plant, and which must develop before 
spore formation can take place is not apparent to the naked eye ; 
it gives no sign of its presence except by inducing the tufted 
growth of slender shoots. 

It will readily be seen that this vegetative portion of the 
fungus is beyond the reach of any curative applications that 
might be made. It is secure within the tissues of the plant, and 
since it has been proved that the threads extend into the roots 
and are perennial, we are led to the conclusion that our only 
course is to completely destroy the infested plants. Spraying 



76 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

has been recommended as a protection against the spreading of 
the fungus by the spores, but spraying will be unnecessary if 
the plants are carefully watched and the infested ones removed 
before the dissemination of spores begins. 

ANTHRACNOSE OF THE RASPBERRY AND BLACKBERRY. 
In 1896 canes of black-cap raspberry infested with this dis- 
ease were sent us from near Denver. From the fact that nothing 
has been heard of the presence of the disease since, we re- 
gard this as an isolated case introduced, in all probability, on 
plants from some eastern nursery. The dryness of our climate 
is not favorable to the development of this disease and we ap- 
prehend no serious trouble from it; but as it is liable to appear 
at any time on introduced stock, it may be well to dwell briefly 
upon its characteristics. The cause of the disease is a fungus 
( Glceosporium venetum) and Professor Burrill of Illinois is 
credited with publishing the first accoimt of it in 1882 under 
the name of raspberry cane rust. The disease appears to be 
confined to the blackberry and black-cap raspberry. As with 
the orange rust the vegetative threads of the fungus ramify 
within the plant and are perennial. The first evidence of the 
presence of the fungus ascends and the spots appear at intervals 
even to the tips of the canes. The spores are formed about the 
centers of these spots and as thy push outward the bark is rup- 
tured and curled back. The spots then appear grayish white 
with a purplish border. Often several spots coalesce, form- 
ing irregular patches. "While the principal work of the fungus 
is on the canes, it is not wholly confined there, but may appear 
on the petioles and veins of the leaves. The nature of this fun- 
gus suggests the cutting out and burning of all canes seen to be 
affected. As a preventive measure it is recommended to spray, 
as soon as the canes are uncovered in the spring, with a solution 
of sulphate of iron, two pounds to five gallons of water, to be 
followed later, if the disease appears, by an application of the 
Bordeaux mixture. 



HOW TO TIGHT THE CODLING 
MOTH 



BY C. P. GILLETTE. 
Many orchardists spray for the codling moth and still grow 
very wormy apples. The writer knows of an orchard near the 
experiment station that was sprayed with an arsenical mixture 
three times last summer and in which fully eighty per cent, of 
the fruit was wormy at the time of picking in September. An- 
other orchard in the same neighborhood was sprayed twice and 
had less than two per cent, of wormy fruit at picking time. 
What made the difference? Why is it that one man sprays his 
orchard and has very little wonny fruit and his neighbor, who 
also sprays, has nearly all of his apples wormy 1 This irS a ques- 
tion often asked and frequently difficult to answer satisfactorily. 
That a reason exists for the different results there can be no 
doubt. The object of this paper is to give the best directions 
that we can at present for the successful treatment of this in- 
sect. Perhaps it will explain to some why they have not met 
with better success in the past. 

V/HEN TO SPRAY. 

No date can be fixed upon, yet spraying must be done at 
the right time if the best results are to be obtained. The right 
time is immediately after the blossoms fall before the calyces 
of the forming apples close. If there are belated blossoms on the 
trees after the great mass of bloom has fallen, do not wait for 
them if some of the calyces are closing. If the trees do not all 
bloom nearly together, spray the early blooming trees first and 
then in a few days spray the others. Repeat the application 
in one week, or, at the latest, ten days. - 




Fig. 1 — Blossoms from which the petals have fallen, and still in good condition 
to recive tlie spray, also apples with the cayces closed. 
Fig. 2. — Spraying scene in orchard of Mr. Bergher at Palisade, Colorado. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 79 

^HOW TO SPRAY. 

Be thorough with the work. It will take more time and 
material, hut if spraying for this insect will pay at all it will 
pay best to do the work well. Use a nozzle that throws a medium 
fine spray, not a mist, and direct it so that the liquid will be 
thrown into every blossom or calyx. A misty spray will not 
carry as well into the blossoms. To make a thorough application 
it will be necessary to direct the spray from, at least, two sides 
of the tree, and if the tree is large, it will be almo.st necessary 
to apply from all four sides. In many orchards the trees are so 
closely set, so large and poorly pruned that it is impossible to 
make a thorough treatment of the destruction of the codling 
moth larvge. 

The one who directs the nozzle for the spraying will find 
it a great advantage to be elevated as high as the bed of a wagon 
box at least. If the trees are large, it will be well to use a step- 
ladder or a dry goods box in the wagon to elevate him still more. 

NU[V!BER OF APPLICATIONS. 

Orchardists differ widely in opinion as to the number of 
applications that should be made. Some, noticing that the 
worms are most abundant late in the summer, think that spray- 
ing should be continued throughout the season of growth and 
report excellent results from spraying five or six or more times. 
However, it is the opinion of those who have tested the matter 
_ most thoroughly at the various experiment stations of the country 
that it does not pay to spray more than twice, and if the two 
applications are properly made at the best time. 

POISON TO USE. 

Here again opinions differ. Probably Paris green is as 
effectual as any if well applied and if the liquid is kept thor- 
oughly agitated during the spraying. Scheele's green would 
probably be as effectual as Paris green, is cheaper, and remains 



80 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

in suspension in water better. London purple and arsenate of 
lime are readily kept in suspension in water but are slower in 
their action than the above mentioned poisons, and probably less 
effectual in their death-dealing power. They have the advan- 
tage of being very cheap. Arsenate of lead is kept in suspen- 
sion without difficulty and is remarkable for its adhesive quality 
and its entire harmlessness to foliage unless used in great excess. 
It kills slowly and its value for the destruction of the codling 
moth has not been very definitely determined. 



INSECTS CLASSIFIED 

Insects with biting mouths always gnaw into and devour 
the tissue of the part of the plant on which they feed. Such 
insects would include all of the caterpillars, commonly known as 
worms, whether hairy or naked. All of the so-called slugs, grass- 
hoppers, locusts, crickets, potato beetle, larvae of the leaf roller 
and the codling moth. 

Insects with sucking mouths always cause the leaves to turn 
pale or brown in color, and include : Plant lice, scale lice, aphis, 
tirps, leaf hopper, squash bug, etc. 



REMEDIES— FORMULAS 



The following remedies and formulas are those adopted by 
the leading horticulturists and experiment station in Colorado 
for the extertnination of pests, the prevention of the importa- 
tion and spread of insects and diseases detrimental to the horti- 
cultural interests of Colorado. 

REMEDY No. 0. 

Arsenate of "Lead or Disparene should be used in the pro- 
portion of three to six pounds to 100 gallons of water. The 
merits of this poison are — it will not injure foliage and it adheres 
better to the foliage than other poisons. 

i REMEDY No. 1. 

Paris Green or London Purple : One pound ; water 160 gal- 
lons ; lime, two pounds. 

First make paste of the poison in a small amount of water, 
then dilute to the proper proportions, by adding the fresh lime 
(slacked and strained). Apply in a fine spray as soon as blos- 
soms have fallen, and again in one week. If heavy rains follow 
repeat the spraying. This remedy to kill biting insects. For 
peach and plum trees a mixture of one pound of the poison to 
200 gallons of water may be used with the same amount of lime. 

REMEDY No. 2. 

To be used for same insects as No. 1. White arsenic one- 
quarter pound. Sal soda, 1 pound; lime, 4 pounds; water, 40 
gallons. 

First dissolve the arsenic and sal soda in hot water and boil 



82 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

15 minutes, when ready for use. Slack 4 pounds fresh lime and 
add to 40 gallons of water, always strain through a fine wire 
screen to prevent clogging nozzle of spraying machine. Spray 
first time as soon as the bloom has fallen ; second time 10 days 
later ; third time between the 4th and 15th of July. 

REMEDY No. 3. 

Arsenic Bran Mash for grasshoppers. 

Arsenic 1 pound ; sugar 1 pound ; bran 10 pounds. 

Add to the ingredients water sufficient to make the mixture 
moist. And scatter in places where the grasshoppers are thickest. 
Care must be exercised as not to place where animals or fowls 
can get at it. 

REMEDY No. 4. 

Is valuable in destroying the currant worm, pear tree slug, 
rose slug, raspberry slug and the larvte of saw flies. 

White hellebore 1 ounce ; Avater 3 gallons. 

Apply as a spray late in the day. Air slacked lime or dust 
may be used instead of water in which case it can be dusted over 
foliage lightly from a cheese cloth sack. 

REMEDY No. 5. 

Is used for all fungus diseases. 

Sulphate of copper 6 pounds ; quick lime 4 pounds ; water 22 
gallons. ; - 

Dissolve the sulphate of copper in a gallon of hot water. 
Slack the lime in another gallon of water, and then add the milk 
of the lime slowly to the sulphate of copper while the latter is 
being constantly stirred; then add 20 gallons of water. Use a 
spray. 

REMEDY No. 6. 

Is especially used in destroying sucking insects, including 
plant bugs and plant feeding mites. 

Kerosene 2 gallons; whale oil or hard soap 1 pound; soft 
water 28 gallons. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 83 

Dissolve the soap in 1 gallon of boiling water. (If the water 
is hard break with lye.) Heat the solution to boiling- and (away 
from the fire) add 2 gallons of kerosene. Agitate freely for 
five minutes by pumping the liquid back upon itself with a force 
pump, or until the mixture assumes the consistency of cream. 
Add 27 gallons of water, then use as a spray. This lic^uid must 
never be used upon roots of trees or shrubs. 

REMEDY No. 7. 

Disinfectant to be used for boxes, barrels, etc. 

Concentrated lye 1 pound ; water 10 gallons. 

Dissolve the lye in water and use boiling hot, keeping the 
material in one minute. 

REMEDY No. 8. 

Formula for fish oil soap. This is an effective remedy for 
scale insects, plant lice and sucking insects, which can be killed 
by contact. 

Concertrated lye Si/o pounds; water 8 gallons; fish oil 1 
gallon. 

First dissolve the lye in boiling water, then add the oil and 
boil 21/2 hours longer. This can be used as a substitute for 
whale oil soap. 

REMEDY No. 9. 

Winter rosin wash, is valuable in destroying scale insects in 
dry seasons. 

Rosin 30 pounds; caustic soda (75^) 9 pounds; fish oil 41/0 
pints ; water to make 100 gallons. 

Boil the rosin, oil and soda until dissolved. Then boil for 3 
hours during which time hot water should be added slowly, so as 
not to stop the boiling, until the whole is diluted to 50 gallons ; 
the other 50 gallons may then be added cold. 

REMEDY No. 10. 

Lime, sulphur and salt winter wash. Used to destroy scale 
insects and eggs of brown mite and red spider. 




FIG.6; 



Fig-. 1 — Western tent caterpillar: A, female moth; B and C, males; D, 
apple twig- with egg masses, (M) F cocoon; 3, egg mass of American tent 
caterpillar, life size. Fig. 2 — Cottony maple scale: A, scales mostly 
hidden by secretions, life size. Fig. 3 — Codling moth: A, wings closed; B, 
open, enlarged about one-fourth. Fig. 4 — Apple showing white egg- of 
codling moth under letter F, life size. Fig. 5 — Fruit tree leaf roller: Let- 
ter A, moth with wings open; B, qlosed; C D eg-g- patches hatched, all 
life size. Fig. 6 — Pear with Howard scale, the young appear as minute 
white specks, life size. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



S5 



Unslaeked lime 50 pounds ; sulphur 25 pounds ; stock salt 18 
pounds ; water to make 100 gallons. 

Put the sulphur and one-half the lime in 25 gallons of water 
and boil until the sulphur is dissolved. Mix the remaining lime 
with the salt and slack with water, then add to sulphur mixture 
and boil for another hour, when the whole can be diluted to 100 
gallons with water. (Strain before using.) 

REMEDY No. 11. 

Whale oil soap. This substance stands close to kerosene 
emulsion in importance as a destroyer of soft bodied insects. It 
may be used for dipping the roots of nursery stock. 

Whale oil soap 1 pound ; water 8 gallons. 

As a winter wash it is sometimes used as strong as 2 pounds 
in a gallon of water for the destruction of San Jose scale. Putnam 
and other scales. A pound to 2 gallons of water destroys the eggs 
of plant lice or of the Brown Mite. 

APPLE TREE ENEMIES. 

The Codling Moth. — Use remedy No. 1 or No. 2. First appli- 
cation as soon as blossoms fall. Second application one week 
later. 




Apple Leaf 
Roller. — Use remedy 
No. 1 or No. 2. Ap- 
ply the spray as 
soon as leaves ap- 
pear and repeat once 
a week as long as 
worm lasts. 



Apple Leaf RoUer. 



8G 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



Apple flea Beetle. — A small metallic green beetle about Yg 
of an inch in length that eats holes in the leaves and jumps and 
takes wings quickly when disturbed . Use remedy No. 1 or No. 2. 

Tent Caterpillar. — 
The tent caterpillar is a 
native of Colorado. The 
eggs appear in greyish 
white rings around the 
twigs and limbs of trees. 
They hatch out about the 
time the leaves appear in 
the spring, and form little 
webs on the end of the 
twigs. When they mature 
they leave the web and 
form colonies, and during 
the day stay on the trunk 
3f the trees. By spraying 
, tvith warm soap suds it 
i:ills them instantly. 

Fall Web Worm.— A 
yellowish or brownish cat- 
erpillar with a black head 
that forms a loose web or 
tent in a great variety of 
trees, appearing about the 
first of July and continu- 
ing through the summer. 
The lar^^ge is covered 
rather sparsely with long 
hairs that are whitish or yellowish in color, with occasional black 
ones. When the webs are small, cut out and burn. If the webs 
have become large, inclosing many branches of the tree, burn 
the worms with a torch. 




Tent Caterpillar — Showing tent, 
moth and larvae. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



87 



Apple Flea Beetle. — During the winter and early spring, 
there are small shining black specks in rough, places on the bark 
and about the buds, or distributed promiscuously over the sur- 
face of the small limbs. Usually abundant where there are num- 




Fig. 1. — Fan webworm — A and B, CaterpiUars; C, ChrysaUs; D, Moth. 



erous fine plant hairs, making a felty covering to which the eggs 
are easily attached. The best time for treatment is when the trees 
are dormant. Any time after the leaves fall or before the buds 
open. Use whale oil soap in the proportion of 1 pound to 2 gal- 
lons of water. After the leaves are out use No. 6. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 




Flat Headed Apple Tree Borer. — Fig. A, 
flat headed larvse; B, mature beetle; 
C, head of mature beetle; D, Pupa; 
all twice natural size. 



Flat Headed Borer. 
— First protect the trees 
from snn scald and other 
injuries. In winter or 
spring the borer can be 
grubbed out with a sharp 
knife and killed. The 
borer can be kept in check 
by washing the trees with 
No. 9 or No. 10 about the 
time the eggs are laid, 
and wet the ground to de- 




strawberry Leaf Roller — A, LarvEe, natural size; B, head end of larvae 
enlarg-ed; C, moth, twice natural size; D, tail end of larv^, enlarged. 

stroy the hopper. Avoid spraying while the vines are in bloom. 
The Grape Leaf Hopper also appears on currant and goose- 
berry bushes and Virginia Creeper. 

. Strawberry Leaf Roller. — After the berries are picked mow 
the vines and mulch with a light covering of straw or other 
rubbish that will burn easy, then burn when there is a brisk 
wind. When the rubbish is burned oif irrigate immediately. If 
worms appear late, spray with No. 1 or No. 2. 

The Imported Currant Borer. — The moth begins to fly in 
June, and are usually caught in a net at egg laying time, and 
destroyed. Much can be done in this way to lessen the number 
of eggs laid and hence, the number of larvae to bore in the cur-' 
rant stem^s. By cutting out all the infested stems in the spring 
the injuries for the following year will be lessened. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 




Strawberry Leaves Showing- Their Appearance After Being Folded by 

The Roller. 

SHADE TREE ENEMIES. 

Cotton Wood Borer. — This iiiseet is also knowr as the Oak 
Carpenter worm. The larvffi when fully grown is nearly 3 inches 
long with a shining black head it cuts large holes in the trunks 
of the trees. The castings of the borer are pushed out on the 
surface and the tree bleeds as a result of the wounds made to the 
surface. The sap runs down on the surface and sours, making 
a breeding place for maggots for certain flies. With a stout 
wire many of the borers can be killed in their burrows. Avoid 
scarring the trees as much as possible, as borers usually enter 
at such places. 




Cottonwood Borer, Much Enlarged. 



90 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



The Cottonwood is also attacked by plant lice, fall web worm 
and Putnam scale. Use remedies as hereinbefore prescribed for 
same. 

The Box Elder Leaf Roller. — This insect is a close relative 
to the fruit tree leaf roller and seems to confine its attacks in 
this state to the box elder alone. The eggs are laid in the surface of 
the rough bark and are covered with the scales from the under- 
side of the abdomen of the female, which are placed like shingles 
on a roof. Use remedy No. 1 or No. 2. 




Moth of Cottonwood Borer, Much Enlarged. 



The Ash Gall Lonse. — Greenish plant lice curling the leaves 
of white ash. The lice nsually accumulate on the leaves at the 
end of the limb. The leaves curl and become so swollen and 
loaded with lice that the limb will often be bent down with the 
weight. As soon i^ the leaves at the end of the limb begin to 



92 xilRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

curl, cut the limb off far enough back to include all the infested 
leaves and burn them. 

The Elm Leaf Cluster Louse. — Trim out all the clusters and 
burn as soon as they appear. To prevent their appearance an- 
other season, spray the trees during the winter with remedy No. 
9 or No. 10. 

The Cottony Maple Scale. — A yellowish or brownish scale 
on the twigs of soft maple. During the fall and winter and 
early spring the scales are quite flat. During May convex, and 
finally a mass of white cottony thread appears at one end raising 
the end of the scale from the limb to an angle of about 40 or 
even more. In this cottony mass an enormous number of minute 
yellowish eggs are deposited. Often as many as 2,000 to the 
single scale. A thorough spraying with remedy No. 6 will kill 
the young lice. 

The Pine Leaf Scale. — White elongated scales appear on 
leaves of pine and spruce trees. And beneath the scales, in the 
spring, will be found a mass of purple eggs, causing the leaves 
to fall. Use 1 pound whale oil soap to 4 gallons of water as a 
spray, after the young lice have hatched, which will be about 
June 1st. 

Caution Regarding Blight. — The orchard should be ex- 
amined in the fall or early winter, cutting off every branch 
showing any signs of holdover blight, the germs of which remain 
during winter in partly dormant condition. In cutting out 
blighted portions there is one precaution that should always be 
observed, and that is the sterilization of the knife. All branches 
cut off must be burned. 

Sterilization Mixture. — Carbolic acid 214 ounces; water 1 
quart. Agitate well and dip knife blade into after cutting each 
branch. 



PLANT LICE AND THUIR REMEDIIIS 



BY S. ARTHUR JOHNSON. 

The abundance of plant lice during the past three years has 
led to a ilumber of experiments at the station which have covered 
a wide range of insects and insecticides. The results indicate 
that proper methods will keep these pests under control. 

LIFE HISTORY. 

Plant lice are tiny insects usually rounded in form and pro- 
vided with two little tubes which extend upward and backward 
from the abdomen. Lice live upon the juices of plants by thrust- 
ing their bills through the epidermis of the tender twigs or leaves. 
The first brood in the spring is produced from eggs which Avere 
laid the previous fall. The other generations, except the last, 
are females born alive, and these young begin immediately to 
suck juices and soon bear other young, the number of which may 
result in a single season from the hatching of one egg is almost 
incredible. The first generations are wingless and live not far 
from the place where the eggs are hatched. In time, however, 
winged individuals appear. These fly to new feeding grounds 
and are the chief source of distribution. Most lice are green and 
escape notice, but some are made conspicuous by their colors. The 
last brood in the fall lay eggs. These may be seen after the 
leaves have fallen as tiny black oblong objects on the limbs and 
about the buds. An abundance of these indicates that watchful- 
ness will be needed the following spring. 
THEIR ENEMIES. 

Generally plant lice are kept under control by their enemies, 
chief of which are the lady-birds and syrphus flies. Adult lady- 



94 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



birds may usually be recognized as oval red beetles spotted with 
black. The larvge are oblong, rough and commonly mottled red 
and black. They have three pairs of legs and a distinct head. 
The eggs are yellow and laid in patches where lice are abundant. 
The syrphus fly larvae are smooth, green or greenish white and 
without distinct legs and head. The eggs are white, oblong 
bodies which are laid singly on the leaves of infested plants. 
Where the enemies are abundant they will destroy the lice and 
spraying is unnecessary. 

INSECTICIDES. 

From the manner of their feeding it is impossible to kill 
plant lice with poisons. It is necessary to employ some substance 
which will kill by contact and to apply it very thoroughly, for 
every insect which escapes the application remains to repopulate 
the food plant. These precautions are valuable: 1. Spray up- 
ward with force so as to wet the under side of the leaves. 2. 
Spray before the winged forms appear to prevent distribution. 
Among the best insecticides are : 

The presence of this insect 
is indicated by very small 
white scales upon the 
trunk or limbs of the trees, 
sometimes entirely cover- 
ing the bark; and appear 
like a covering of scurf 
or dandruff. The use of 
No. 9 or No. 10 while the 
trees are dormant will 
probably kill the scales. 
After the leaves are out, 
if the lice appear, use No. 
6 the last of May and 




Ot Ti 



Scurvy Bark Louse — A, Twig- showing- scales of female; B, Twig- showing 
scales of male louse; C, Scale of female greatly enlarged; D, scale 
of male greatly enlarged. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



9S 



again about the 10th of June. The same remedy may be used 
to eradicate the oyster shell bark louse and the Putnam scale. 

Whale-oil Soap. — This must be dissolved in boiling water, 
after which it is diluted in the proportion of one pound of soap to 
from six to twelve gallons of water. 




Apple Twig- Borer — A, beetle, dorsal view; A', beetle, side view; B, 
pupa from beneath; C, grub, side view; D, apple twig- showing bur- 
row; E, burrow in tamerisk, with pupa at bottom; F, stem of grape, 
showing burrow; all enlarged except stems showing burrows. 

Apple Twig Borer. — A cylindripal mahagony colored beetle, 
about 1-3 of an inch in length, boring holes in twigs of apples, 
cherry, pear, osage orange and other trees, also grape vines. 
The burrow starting just above the bud and extending downward. 
The remedy is to cut out the stems so infested and burn them. 

Woolly Aphis. — As soon as the lice appear in the trunk of 
the trees in the spring before they get into the branches, apply 



96 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 




Woolly Aphis, Root Form. — A, showing- swellings caused by lice; B, 
wingless louse, showing woolly secretions; C, winged louse. 

kerosene oil with a brush or swab. By repeating the operation a 
few times they may be kept largely from the tops of the trees. One 
form of this insect is found on the roots of the trees and produce 
wart-like swellings. Another form appears on the trunk and 
limbs, and is usually densely covered with woolly excretion. The 




Showing- Woolly Aphis on Branch 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



97 



best remedy for the root form is tobacco dust worked 
into the ground to the amount of 3 to 6 pounds 
about the crown of the tree and then wet with 
water. In the hands of one who has had experi- 
ence, carbon bisulphide, may be used by injecting it into the 
ground about the crown of the tree. If the lice spread over the 
top of the trees, they may be treated with remedy No. 6 or No. 11. 
It is necessary to apply with a great deal of force, so as to wet 
through the wool which protects the lice from any light spray. 
When the lice are found on the roots of nursery stock, it is ad- 
visible to dip the roots in No. 11, or to fumigate with hydrocy- 
anic acid gas. The latter is the best treatment. 




Showing- San Jose scale on pear. Fig-. 2 — Scale enlarged 



IRRiGATlON FHUlT GROWING. 



Bands on trees for Codling Moth. — "Wrap around the trunk of 
tree one or more feet from the ground, three thicknesses of burlap 
six inches wide. Put in one tack where the burlap joins. The 
bands should be in place by June 10th, and examined every 
three or four days, and the worms taken out and killed, until the 
apples are gathered. If bands are put on to trees, as above de- 
scribed, they must be attended to, or the bands will be of service 
to the worms by forming a place of security from birds, etc. Also 
folded pieces of burlap, in crotches of the trees, will catch many 

worms. 

PEAR TREE ENEMIES. 

For Red Spider or Brown Mite. — To kill eggs while the trees 
are dormant in winter, use remedy No. 9 or No. 10, or whale oil 
soap, 1 pound to 2 gallons of water. For spraying after the 
leaves are out use No. 6. These insects also attack cherry, apple 
and plum trees, rose bushes and sweet peas. 




Pear Tree Slug-. — A, adult fly; B, larvse or slug- with slimy covering re- 
moved; C, same as preceding, in natural condition; D, leaves show- 
ing slugs and their injuries. 

Pear Tree Slug. — For pear tree slugs use remedy No. 1 or No. 
4. Plum and cherry trees arse also infested by these slugs. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



99 



For Pear Leaf Blister. — This disease in indicated by small 
black spots appearing on pear leaves, sometimes so numerous as 
to run together and involve a great portion of the leaf before 
turning black the spots are green, like the rest of the leaf. The 
parasite may be killed during the winter or early spring, when 
the trees are dormant, by a spray of kerosene emulsion in which 
the kerosene is 1-5 of the mixture. The parasite spends the winter 
under bud scales upon the trees. 

PLUM TREE ENEMIES. 

For Green Aphis apply No. 6 or No. 11. This does no harm 
to the birds which prey upon all plant lice. 





Showing- Plum Gouger at Work. 



Plum Goug-er — A, plum pit, showing 
holes for exit of gouger; B, 
gouger; C, side view of head of 
gouger, showing beak and an- 
tenna. 

For Plum Gouger. — Many of these insects can be caught 
by jarring the trees as soon as they are in bloom, placing a sheet 
under the trees to catch the insects. Collect and destroy all fruit 
stung before the phuns ripen. 

Plum Leaf Nail Gale. — The leaves of the American varieties 
of the plum are sometimes injured by the production of a large 
number of slender tubular projections standing out from the 



wo 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



upper surfaces. Inside each gale are large numbers of very small 
spider-like insects or mites. Nothing can be done of much value 
while the trees are in leaf. Fallen leaves should be destroyed as 
much as possible by fire and the trees sprayed with No. 9 or No. 
10. 

Plum Cucolio. — Jarring as for the plum gouger is the best 

of arsenical sprays. 

Peach Borer. — A yel- 
lowish white larvEe or borer 
working beneath the bark 
at the crown of the tree 
and down on the roots, 
causing the exhalation of 
a gummy substance. The 
eggs are laid about the 
crown of the tree by a small 
moth with steel blue wings 
that flies in the bright sun- 
shine and resembles a wasp 
in appearance. 




Peach Twig Borer — A, twig of 
peach showing little masses cf 
chewed bark above the larval 
burrows; B, the same enlarged; 
C, larvae in winter, burrow en- 
larged; D, hybernating larvse, 
greatly enlarged. 



PEACH TREE ENEMIES. 

Peach Borer. — A yellowish white larvffi or borer working 
beneath the bark at the crown of the tree and down on the roots, 
causing the exhalation of a gummy substance. The eggs are laid 
about the crown of the tree by a small moth with steel blue 
wings that flies in the bright sunshine and resembles a wasp in 
appearance. 

Cut out the borer with a knife. This should be done early 
remedy for this insect. Some benefit can be derived from the use 
sect in check. A little dirt should be brushed away from the 
crown of the tree to discover any burrows that may be apparent 
at the surface. 

Other insects that may be found attacking the peach are 
Plum Curcula, San Jose scale. Red Spider, Brown mite and plant 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



101 




Moths of Peach Borer. 




Peach Twig and Borer — A, young shoot 
wilting from attack of borer; B, 
adult larvae, enlarged; C, chrysalis, 
enlarged; D, tail end of chrysalis, 
showing hook. 



lice. The same remedies here- 
inbefore mentioned for the 
destruction can be used. 

Peach Twig Borer.— 
Remedy No. 10 is the best 
thing so far tried. Use just 
before the buds begin to swell 
in the spring. After the trees 
have bloomed and the peaches 
formed, apply bands to trees 
the same as described for cod- 
ling moth. Another remedy 
recommended by Farmers ' 
Bulletin No. 80, United States 
Department of Agriculture, 




flQX 




Fig-. 1 — Grape leaf, showing- bleached appearance due to grape hopper. 
Fig. 2 — Eight spotted forester — A, moth: B, larvae, nearly life size. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 103 

is kerosene emulsion, and clipping affected limbs off and 
burning them. 

INSECT ENEMIES OF SMALL FRUITS. 

. The Western Currant and Gooseberry Span Worm. — Use 
remedy No. 6, or insect powder, as in case of plant lice. 

Grape Leaf Hopper — Spray with remedy No. 6 before sun- 
rise. Apply with force so as to knock the insects off of the vines 

Tobacco Stem Decoction. — Tobacco stems or dust m&.y be 
purchased from cigar manufacturers at a very reasonable price. 
They should be put in cold water, heated to boiling point and 
boiled for half or three-quarters of an hour. The decoction is 
then diluted to make from two to five gallons of spray for each 
pounds of stems. The preparation should be used before it be- 
comes sour or stale. 

Kerosene Emulsion. — This may be used in proportion of 
from one gallon of oil to fifteen of water, to one to twenty -five. 

Whale-oil soap and kerosene emulsion are liable to injure the 
foliage when used in strong solutions. Probably the tobacco 
preparations are safest where these are needed. 
COMMON PLANT LICE. 

Green Apple Louse. — This is rather difficult to kill. It may 
be treated with whale oil soap in the proportion of one pound of 
soap to six gallons of water ; tobacco stem decoction one pound to 
three gallons; or kerosene emulsion one to fifteen. It is best 
to spray before the lice have caused the leaves to roll or early in 
the spring when the lice have just hatched. 

Green Plum Louse. — ^Use tobacco stem decoction, one pound 
to four gallons, or tobacco soap, one pound to twelve gallons. 

Black Cherry Louse. — It is conspicuous for its color. It is 
rather hard to kill. Apply the stronger strengths of any of the 
insecticides named above. , 

Snowball Louse. — Lives in the young buds and curls the 
leaves in such a way that it cannot be easily reached. Drench 
the stem and opening buds in the spring with whale-oil soap, 
one pound to eight gallons. 



THE APPLICATION OF INSECTICIDES 

BY C. P. GILLETTE. 

In the Dry Way. — The upper surface of the leaves of all low 
plants can be easily treated with a dry insecticide by dusting it 
upon them through a cheesecloth, or other thin muslin sack, held 
in the hand. There are also various appliances upon the market 
for the distribution of powders. One of these that is very con- 
venient for filling the air of a room with dust to kill flies, or for 
the application of powders to low herbage, is shown in Fig. 15. 
It can be had of Thomas Woodason, 415 East Cambria street, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 




15 — Dust- sprayer. 



The Hillis Dust Sprayer Company, of St. Louis, Mo., manu- 
facture a "dust sprayer" large enough to distribute dry insec- 
ticide through trees of the size of an ordinary apple tree. 

In the Wet Way. — There are so many manufacturers of 
spray pumps and nozzles of all descriptions that it is impossible 
to point out any make as the best. The illustrations here given 
are for the purpose of giving the reader an idea of the kind of a 
pump that will be needed for his work. Each must be his own 
judge as to the quality and price of the pumps offered him.. 

Fig. 16 is an illustration of the "Faultless Sprayer,'' manu- 
factured by F. E. Myers & Bro., Ashland, Ohio. It is inexpen- 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



105 



sive and will answer well where only a few small plants are to be 
treated. 




Fig. 16 — "Faultless" Hand Atomizer. 



Fig. 17 shows a fonn of atomizer, having a similar use, also 
sold by Woodason of Philadelphia. 




Fig-. 17 — Bellows Atomizer. 



PUMPS. 

Pumps with metal valves should be obtained for the applica- 
tion of insecticides or fungicides in liquid form, as the materials 
used harden or decompose leather valves so that they last but a 
short time. If the pump is to be used with a tank or barrel it is 
also important to have some kind of attachment that will keep the 
liquid agitated so the materials in suspension will not settle. A 
common error is to purchase a pump of too small capacity, be- 
cause it is cheaper. A smaller, cheaper pump usually means less 
accomplished in a day with the same help, but with a greater ex- 



106 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



penditure of energy. And then, it is often 
important to complete the spraying in as 
short a time as possible after it is begun. 
To do this, a pump of large capacity with 
two or more leads of hose is necessary. The 
hose to which the nozzles are attached 
should be as light as possible and still have 
the resuisite strength — a hose of good qual- 
ity with heavy wall, but small caliber. Fig. 
18 illustrates a form of bucket pump man- 
ufactured by The Deming Company, Sa- 
lem, Ohio. Bucket pumps are sold by dif- 
ferent dealers at prices ranging between 
about $2.00 and $8.00 in price. They are 
suitable for use among vegetables, shrubbery and all low plants, 
but should not be purchased for orchard work if one has more 




18-Bucket Pump. 




Fig-. 20 — Another Form of Air- 
Pressure Pump. 



Fig-. 21 — Knapsack Sprayer. 



than a very few trees to treat. In the small sprayer shown at 
Fig. 19 the liquid is forced up by means of air pressure. Such 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 107 




Fig-. 19 — Leggett's Air-Pressure Pump. 



108 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



a pump is often convenient when a person is compelled to do 
his spraying alone. This sprayer also has an oil attachment, so 
that water and kerosene may be applied mixed without the trou- 




Fig 22 — Barrel Pump. 

ble of making an emulsion. ■ This pump is manufactured by Leg- 
gett & Brother, New York City. 

Fig. 20 shows a form of air-pressure sprayer sold by the 
North Jersey Nurseries, Springfield, New Jersey. 

Many prefer some form of the knapsack sprayer for th*,' 
treatment of low plants. At Fig. 21 is shown one of these spray< 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



109 



ers as sold by William Stahl, Quincy, Illinois. Knapsack spray- 
ers are also made with an oil tank attached so as to spray kero- 
sene, or petroleum, in a mechanical mixture along with water, 
so as to do away with the need of making an emulsion. 

For the treatment of small orchards a barrel pump is gener- 
ally used. One of the best of these is Grould's "Pomona" spray 
pump shown in Fig. 22. The pump carries two leads of hose and 
has a patent agitating arrangement within the barrel. It is sold 
by The Gould Manufacturing Company, Seneca Falls, New York. 

Where a large 
amount of orchard 
spraying is to be 
done larger pumps 
and tanks should be 
used. Fig. 23 shows 
a gasoline power 
sprayer attached to a 
large wagon tank. 
Such sprayers will 
easily run four leads 

Fig. 23 — Power Pump. Run by GasoHne Engine, of hoSC and keep Up 

a high pressure. Without a good pressure it is impossible to 
throw a fine and forcible spray. The .power sprayer here shown 
is also manufactured by the Gould Manufacturing Company. 
There are many other companies manufacturing spraying appa- 
ratus. Their advertisements will be found in agricultural pa- 
pers. If anyone is thinking of purchasing an expensive spraying 
outfit he should obtain catalogues and prices from several manu- 
facturers or dealers and then purchase where he thinks he can 

do best. 

HOW TO SPRAY. 

The first req.uisite for a good job of spraying is a pump that 
will give plenty of pressure in the hose. Then, if one has a good 
spraying nozzle and a liquid that is free from solid particles of a 




no 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWINa. 



size to clog the sprayer, there will be no difficulty in getting a 
good spray. A very fine spray is most economical of material 
and, for an even and thorough distribution, is best. Care should 
be taken, also, not to continue the spraying until the little drops 





Fig-. 24 — Seneca Nozzle. Fig. 25 — Bordeaux Nozzle. 

that collect on the foliage unite and run off, carrying the poison 
with them. In some cases, however, as when spraying the first 
and second times for the codling moth, the writer prefers a 
rather coarse spray and to continue until the calyces of the form- 
ing fruits have all been thoroughly drenched without regard as 
to how much the liquid is dripping from the foliage. The me- 
dium coarse spray is preferred for this work, because the larger 





Fig. 27 — A Battery of two Vermorel 

Nozzles. Fig. 



26 — Single Vermorel Nozzle. 



drops carry better into the blossoms, or calyces, of the apples. 

The " Seneca" nozzle sold by the Gould Manufacturing 

Company and shown at Fig, 24 throws a good coarse spray. The 

"Bordeaux" nozzle shown at Fig. 25 and sold by The Deming 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. Ill 

Company is one of the best nozzles for either coarse or medium 
fine spray.' For a very fine, misty spray I know no nozzle that 
equals the ' ' Vermorel. ' ' This nozzle is mounted singly, as shown 
in Fig. 26, or in batteries of two, three or four nozzles combined. 
A battery of two nozzles is shown at Fig. 27. Figs. 26 and 27 
are from the catalogue issued by the Gould Manufacturing Com- 
pany. 



GRASSHOPPERS— THEIR HABITS 
AND REMEDIES 

BY C. P. GILLETTE. 

The several injurious species of grasshoppers occurring in 
Colorado undoubtedly occasion heavier annual loss than any 
other single insect pest, not excepting the codling moth. It is 
the object of this brief paper to give the most important infor- 
mation as to the habits of these destructive insects and the reme- 
dies that may be used against them. 

Life habits. 

All our specially destructive grasshoppers spend the winter 
in the egg state in the ground. The eggs are from about three 
to four-sixteenths of an inch in length, cylindrical in form, yel- 
lowish white to yellowish brown in color and are deposited in 
compact masses of from about twenty to as many as seventy-five 
together. The females dig small holes to the depth of an inch 
or a little more with the stout ovipositor at the tip of the abdo- 
men. The abdomen is then thrust in as far as it will reach and 
a gluey material is exuded and smeared over the inner wall of 
the little cavity, making it firm. Then the egg mass is deposited 
and it is also covered with the gluey material which soon hardens 
and protects the eggs from excessive moisture and from being 
easily crushed. Egg-laying of some of the species begins about 
the first of August and continues until hard freezing late in 
the fall kills all the old females. As a rule, a single female de- 
posits two packets of eggs. 

The places most chosen by the females for the purpose of 
egg-laying are ditch-banks, the borders of fields and road sides. 
The egg packets are also most often found about the roots of 
plants, as alfalfa, clover or weeds. If the eggs are at all abund- 
ant, a little digging about such plants where the grasshoppers 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 113 

were numerous in the fall will usually reveal them. 

The eggs begin to hatch about as soon as vegetation starts 
in the spring and continue for several weeks, but the eggs of a 
single pod all hatch together. The young hoppers begin at once 
to feed upon such tender growing plants as are at hand, various 
common weeds entering largely into their diet. When young and 
wingless, they are inclined to remain rather close to their place 
of hatching, but as they grow, they scatter about more and may 
become quite evenly distributed through a large field. The ten- 
dency to remain together in large flocks is more or less marked, 
however, and particularly is this noticed late in the afternoon 
when they congregate along the borders of the fields and upon 
the fences to spend the night. So marked is this habit that where 
are grasshoppers abundant it is a common sight to see 
a strip from ten to thirty feet or more wide about 
the borders of an alfalfa field that is almost denuded 
of vegetation. Sometimes the grasshoppers do great 
damage by ascending trees and eating fruit and 
foliage and gnawing the tender bark from the twigs. Such inju- 
ries usually occur alongside an alfalfa or pasture field from 
which the grasshoppers have migrated. 

REMEDIES. 

There are many remedies that may be used to advantage 
against grasshoppers. Which is best to use in a given case de- 
pends upon circumstances. It may be best often to use a combi- 
nation of remedial or preventive measures. 

DESTRUCTION OF THE EGGS. 

The best of all artificial remedies, where it can be used, is 

plowing deeply late in the fall or early in the spring, all the 

. ground where the eggs are abundant. Even the young hoppers, 

when very small, may be turned under quite successfully in 

this manner and destroyed. 

Where plowing can not be resorted to, a thorough harrow- 
ing, especially with a disk harrow, will do much to destroy the 



114 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

eggs. Some will be crushed, others will be eaten by birds and 
still others will succumb to the freezing and thawing and drying 
when separated from the egg-mass. These remedies must be ap- 
plied before the young hoppers hatch. 

DESTRUCTION OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. 

Burning. — ^When the grasshoppers are quite small and travel 
slowly, they may be killed along ditch banks and in other places 
where they are abundant by covering the ground with straw and 
then burning it. 

Poisoning. — Young hoppers may also be poisoned in large 
numbers by thoroughly spraying the young weeds and other 
vegetation on the waste land where they are hatching in large 
numbers with any of the arsenical poisons, as Paris green, arse- 
nite of lime, arsenate of lead, etc. The poisons should be used 
rather strong. Later,^when the hoppers get into the crops, they 
may be poisoned quite successfully by the use of arsenic-bran 
mash. Mix a pound of Paris green or white arsenic with about 
twenty pounds of bran, moisten enough with water so that the 
particles will adhere together in a crumbly mass, and then sow 
broadcast where the hoppers are most abundant. Do not use 
this where chickens feed. 

Bandages. — To keep grasshoppers out of trees, bandage the 
trunks with cotton batting or printer's ink or axle grease. If 
either of the last two named substances is used do not put it 
upon the bark of the tree, but upon heavy paper which is first 
wrapped about the trunk. If the hoppers jump or fly into the 
trees, using poisonous sprays or driving with whips will have 
to be resorted to. 

Hopper-Dozers. — For open fields, the hopper-dozers, or 
catchers, are probably our best remedy after the grasshoppers 
have hatched. A cheap and simple form of hopper-dozer, which 
is probably as effectual as any. The pan is made of 
sheet iron ^ and the back is extended by means of upright 
stakes and a strip of muslin. In the pan is placed a quantity of 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 115 

kerosene or crude petroleum, or a small amount of water with 
oil upon the surface and the pan or dozer is then drawn over 
the field by hand or by means of a couple of horses kept well 
apart so as to collect the hoppers. If the horses are in front of 
the middle of the pan, many of the hoppers will jump out at 
the sides and escape the pan. Every hopper that gets wet with 
the oil dies. Many will jump into the oil and jump out to die. 
When they become abundant in the pan, they should be thrown 
out. 

Another type of hopper-dozer which is much liked by many 
who have used it catches the grasshoppers alive in a box. It is 
manufactured by a Mr. J. H. Behrens, Evans, Colorado, and 
costs about $12.00. 

Grasshopper Diseases. — The African grasshopper fungus 
was experimented with quite extensively last summer in Colo- 
rado, nearly 400 tubes of the fungus being sent out to those re- 
questing a quantity for trial. The station also used a number of 
tubes endeavoring to spread the disease among the grasshoppers 
about Fort Collins. There is very little evidence that the disease 
became destructive to the grasshoppers in any case where it was 
used. There is a native grasshopper disease that is generally dis- 
tributed over the country which did kill great numbers of grass- 
hoppers in nearly all parts of the state last year. It is a pecu- 
liarity of this disease that it causes its victims to crawl to the 
tops of plants to die. If his disease does not occur in a locality 
where grasshoppers are abundant, it might be well to obtain a 
quantity of the dead hoppers from this disease, crush them as 
finely as possible in water and sprikle the decoction over the 
living hoppers and food-plants where possible, especially upon 
low ground, and just before dark. 



CARBON BISULFIDE, "FUMA' 

BY C. P. GILLETTE. 

This is a clear, extremely volatile liquid with a very disa- 
greeable odor. The fumes are heavier than air, so that it is 
always best to expose the liquid in the upper part of a building^, 
or other receptacle, containing objects to be treated. The fumes 
are explosive also when mixed with air, so that great care must 
be taken not to bring fire near them. 

For the purpose of fumigating a building or other inclosed 
space containing growing plants, not over one pint of the liquid 
to 1,000 cubic feet of space should be used. For the destruction 
of insects in seeds, carpets or clothing it may be used much 
stronger. ; ,] ' \ , [\ \>\ij 

To destroy ant hills, thrust a sharp stick down into the hill 
to a depth of eight or ten inches and then remove it and pour 
in two or three ounces of the carbon bisulfide; fill the hole with 
earth by stamping on it, and then throw over the hill a wet 
blanket to hold down the fumes. Allow the blanket to remain 
for a half hour at least, and the ants will be dead. If the hill is 
a very large one it would be well to make two or three holes for 
the carbon bisulfide. 

To kill prairie dogs, pour three or , four ounces of the 
liquid on a ball of cotton and roll the latter down the prairie dog 
hole and quickly fill the mouth of the hole with dirt. 



THi: POTATO FLIIA BEETLE 

( Epitrix Cuciimeris. ) 
BY S. ARTHUR JOHNSON. 

The injury caused by this beetle to the potato harvest con- 
sists in mines made by the larval form under the skin or into the 
flesh of the tilber. The insect at this stage appears like a tiny 
worm as large around as a pin and perhaps three-sixteenths of an 
inch in length. One may often see a portion of it protruding 
from the surface of a freshly dug potato. Its work is readily dis- 
covered by peeling a potato, when the discolored little holes Mall 
be quite conspicuous. These mines are most numerous near the 
surface, but may extend an inch or more into the flesh. 

The worms now in the potatoes will develop into the adult, 
a minute black or dark brown beetle, which feeds upon the 
leaves of the potato and similar plants. When alarmed it has 
the power of jumping very cjuickly like a flea, whence its name. 
In patches where it is very numerous the leaves will often be 
found to be punctured with little round holes made while feed- 
ing. These may not be numerous enough to attract attention, 
however, even when the injury to the crop is considerable. The 
only sure way to discover the pest is to unearth hills in various 
parts of the field and examine the tubers carefully. 

The potatoes are also injured in a manner resembling the 
above by the maggot of a fly which burrows under the skin 
producing a scabby appearance. The potato pulp about the 
burrow is brown and corky. 

Efforts should be made at this time of year (September) 
to prevent, as far as possible, further injuries and to forestall 
the pest next year. To accomplish this the potatoes should be 
dug as soon as their ripening will permit and, if possible, ex- 
posed to the air and sunshine for at least a few hours, prefera- 



118 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

bly a day, before picking from the ground. When there is dan- 
ger from freezing it will be impossible to leave the crop out of 
doors over night. 

This treatment will largely prevent further depredations by 
the insect, but in ease the damage should be continued in the 
stored tubers, some method of fumigation must be resorted to. 

Of these probably carbon bi-sulfide will be the most satis- 
factory. 

Carbon bi-sulfide is a volatile inflammable liquid which may 
be obtained in quantities at about 10 cents per pound from Ed- 
ward R. Taylor, Cleveland, Ohio. In the ordinary potato cellar 
about one-half pound to one pound will be necessary for each 
ten feet square of the floor surface. 

To apply the fumigant the cellar must first be made very 
tight. Close the ventilators so that none of the fumes will es- 
cape. Make the door tight and prepare cloth or other material 
to pack around it when it is closed. Then shallow dishes or deep 
plates may be placed on the bins as high as is convenient. This 
is in order that the fumes, which are heavy, may settle down over 
the potatoes. When all is in readiness the dishes may be filled 
and the doors closed promptly and securely and left in this con- 
dition until the following day, when they may be opened and 
the fumes allowed to escape before anyone is permitted to enter. 

It should never be forgotten for a moment that the fumes of 
carbon bi-sulfide are very explosive and poisonous. No fire of 
any kind should be allowed near the open can or in the building 
where the liquid is being evaporated. This caution applies to 
lighted pipes, cigars and lanterns. 

The strong fumes when breathed for a short time produce 
unconsciousness which will result in death unless the sufferer is 
promptly supplied with fresh air. Bearing these things in mind, 
carbon bi-sulfide, in the hands of an intelligent person, is one 
of the most efficient fumigants with which we have to do. 

The insects mentioned here will doubtless be most numer- 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 119 

OTIS next year in fields where potatoes were raised this year, and 
it is very desirable that next year's crop be planted entirely 
upon other ground. 



FUNGUS DISEASE OF THU POTATO 

BY WENDELL PADDOCK. 

Unfortunately the damage to the potato tuber does not stop 
with the insect injury. Various forms of fungi are abundant 
and ready to enter and extend any injury. It would not be sur- 
prising if the badly infected tubers would also rot badly. Early 
digging and exposure to the sun will not only kill most of the 
insects, but will be helpful in that some forms of fungi are also 
killed by exposure to the sun. 

The necessity of handling green potatoes so as to avoid 
bruising, can not be too strongly emphasized. Bruised surfaces 
on potatoes, especially if they are sacked, or placed in piles 
while the injury is still moist, invite the entrance of the germs 
of decay. 

To sum up ; it will probably be best to dig all potatoes in- 
fested with this worm at once. Allow the tubers to lie on the 
ground at least three hours, a half a day will be better. Do not 
use a sorter. Handle carefully and spread out as thin as possible 
in the cellar. 



TRANSPLANTING LARGE TREES 

The transplanting of fruit trees in the middle of winter is 
a delicate work, but if successfully accomplished it pays well 
for the risk and labor. Often there are fruit trees on the farm 
which could be transplanted with profit to more favorable local- 
ities. There are trees which do not seem to thrive well, and it is 
often necessary to cut them down, g,nd plant others in their 
places. It spoils the row of trees if a young sapling is planted 
in its place. It is often desirable in such instances to obtain a 
half«grown tree, and plant it in the place of the old one. 

Probably there is no better time to transplant the tree than 
in the middle of winter. It is at such a time when little work 
is required on the farm, and when the sap of the tree is dor- 
mant. Select a time when the ground is thoroughly frozen, 
and do the work on a day when there is no danger of the roots 
being thawed out. Dig a large hole where the tree is to be 
planted, making it so large that a big ball of earth can be ac- 
commodated. The best way to judge of this is to make a circle 
around the base of the tree to be transplanted, running out 
even with the branches. Make a similar circle where the tree is 
to be planted, and dig a hole correspondingly large. Make it deep 
and soften the earth in the bottom, so that the soil can be packed 
close up to the roots of the tree. 

The earth should be cut around the tree to the depth of 
several feet, but not closer to the base of the tree than the circle 
drawn. "Where the tree has very spreading branches, the roots 
can be cut a little closer to the base, but generally where the 
limbs are branching the roots are likewise. If the roots are 
frozen solidly and the day is cold an enormous piece of solid 
earth will be dug up with the tree. Only the smaller roots will 
be cut off, while the main ones will not be disturbed in their 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 121 

position. When the earth is dug away, if the tree is a large one 
a derrick will be required to lift it on a stout wagon. The ball 
of earth is heavier than the tree. It is very essential that this 
earth around the roots should not be disturbed or knocked loose. 
With the same derrick the tree can be lowered into the hole 
made for it, and if the soil has been loosened sufficient at the 
bottom the dirt can be packed closely around the small ends of 
the cut roots. The soil should be packed thoroughly into the 
cavity, until the whole is thoroughly covered up. The tree is 
then firm and strong against the winds. It is better to put a 
mulch around the tree then for the rest of the winter, to keep 
the frost in the ground, or at least for a week after the trans- 
planting. . In this way a number of new, full-grown trees can be 
transplanted to the orchard and old dead ones removed. The 
trees will start to growing in the spring almost as if never dis- 
turbed. 



HOW TO GROW POTATOES 

Our farmers doubtless desire all the information they can 
obtain concerning the growth of spuds, so we reprint the fol- 
lowing address, delivered to an assemblage of Greeley farmers 
by Mr. E. R. Bliss, one of the largest and most successful potato 
raisers in that district: 

"We find that our seed raised under irrigation runs out 
very quickly — in two years and perhaps three with some, is the 
most that it can be planted with success. We assume it to be 
due to the potato running out, but whether it is forced by irriga- 
tion and the extra large growth so caused or whether our soil 
is diseased, we do no know. Most of our farmers lay it to irri- 
gation, which may help on the disease, as it hardens the soil. 
At the low point where the ground gets thoroughly soaked there 
is danger of a scab, or the vines die. 

"We use for seed medium sized potatoes, preferring for 
size one that will cut in four pieces in planting with the Aspin- 
wall planter. We use smaller and get a better stand from small 
seed. We are not sure but the green potatoes picked before they 
are ripe make better seed than ripened potatoes ; it is a question. 

' ' Those same potatoes taken from near Greeley and planted 
above irrigation are nearly always smaller. They do not seem to 
do well taken from irrigated land. They have grown over ten 
thousand acres in the Greeley district, our best potato soil being 
the alfalfa breaking. 

' ' Our potatoes are planted along the latter part of May and 
the first of June most all of the potatoes having been planted 
by the 3rd or 4th of June. Our alfalfa sod, standing two or 
three years — three years is better than two years — and cut hay 
from, is irrigated in the spring as soon as we get the water, 
usually coming into the ditches about the first of May, some- 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 123 

times a little during April. We irrigate that ground and let it 
get nicely started — you know how quickly alfalfa will grow, 
coming with us an inch a day. As soon as it ranges from a 
foot to fifteen inches high we turn it under, turning under seven 
or eight inches — eight inches most everyone plows — turning the 
heavy green growth under. That rots very rapidly, so that the 
ground is in condition to plant by the 1st of June. That is our 
best ground for planting potatoes. We of course harrow, use 
both walking and riding plows, seldom do fall plowing. Pre- 
ferring to get that green growth, we do nearly all our breaking 
in the spring. Our experience with fall plowing is that the 
ground gets very dry, so that it is hard to get it in shape. Har- 
row it down and pulverize it on top. It will dry down of course 
an inch, but the dust blanket holds your moisture underneath. 
We usually grow two crops of potatoes and get it back to alfalfa 
as quickly as we can, following it with wheat or some kind of 
grain. Some plant the alfalfa the first year while some wait un- 
til the second year. We get it back as soon as we can, so we have 
about one-third of our ground in potatoes all the time and six 
years' rotation, which gives the best result. It does not pay to 
crop it in potatoes longer." 

It is said that the Greeley farmer sends to Wisconsin or 
New York for his seed potatoes, often paying fancy prices, con- 
sidering it the only sensible and profitable thing to do. The suc- 
cess which has crowned the efforts of the Grreeleyites in the spud 
line proves their good judgment in the selection of seed, but it 
is possible that seed could be procured much cheaper on the 
western slope of Colorado that would give satisfactory crops. In 
the Roaring Fork and Plateau valleys and portions of Grand 
valley itself, are grown large yields of most excellent potatoes, 
larger and better quality than the Greeley potato, which furnish 
a better grade of seed potatoes than are secured from northern 
sources. 



CHEAP FARM PAINTS 

It is often desirable to use some kind of paint to preserve 
wood and improve appearances when tlie regular oil paints can 
not be afforded, and a list of these cheap paints to choose from 
is very convenient. 

■ Perhaps it is well to head the list with ' ' Government White- 
wash," which, although not properly a paint, is used for the 
same purposes. It is used by the government to whitewash light- 
houses and the directions for making it are as follows : 

Slake one-half bushel of lime in boiling water, covering the 
barrel with something to keep in the steam during the slaking 
process. 

Strain the liquid through a fine sieve and add to it a peck 
of salt dissolved in warm water, three pounds of ground rice 
boiled to a thin paste and stirred in while hot, one-half pound 
of Spanish whiting and one pound of clean glue previously dis- 
solved by soaking in cold water and then heating slowly in a 
double boiler. Add five gallons hot water to the mixture, stir 
well and let stand a few days, covered from dirt. This must 
be applied hot. A pint of this whitewash properly applied will 
cover one square yard and is very serviceable. It can be used 
on wood, brick or stone. If a color is desired add yellow o'cher 
for cream, lamp or ivory black for pearl or lead. For fawn add 
proportionately four pounds of umber to one pound of Indian 
red and one pound of lamp black. For stone color proportion- 
ately four pounds raw umber to two pounds lamp-black. Vene- 
tian red, indigo, Spanish brown, etc., are also used for color- 
ing. Green must not be used with the lime, as the mixture injures 
both the color and the wash. 

Another whitewash that is claimed to be good for outside 
work is made by adding to each gallon of ordinary whitewash a 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. -^ 125 

tablespoonful of alum, a half pound of flour paste and a half 
pound of glue. The writer has not tried this, but gives it on an- 
other's recommendation for those who do not wish to try the 
first recipe. 

A red paint that is recommended for out buildings is made 
as follows : Take skim-milk that has just begun to thicken. Add 
to one gallon of milk three pints of good, coarse salt and iron 
brown or Venetian red in the powder form to make the color 
desired. Keep the mixture well stirred all the time and put it 
on the buildings when there is no danger of rain. After it is 
once dry it will not wash oif. 

Another paint is made by adding sweeet skim-milk to hy- 
draulic cement until the mixture is of the consistency of thin 
cream. Stir very thoroughly so that the mixture will flow read- 
ily from the brush. If too thin the paint will streak. The pro- 
portion is about one quart of cement to a gallon of milk. Mix 
only this quantity at a time, as it hardens before it is applied 
if too much is prepared. This is a good paint for wood, brick 
or stone. It is a yellowish stone color. 



HOME-MADE VINEGAR 

If it is impossible to get vinegar from a farmer or some 
other person who makes it for sale, there are a number of sim- 
ple ways of making it at home. I have found it very little trou- 
ble, it costs nothing, and you know what you are using. Half 
gallon fruit jars are better than stone jugs to make it in, as a 
larger surface is exposed to the light and air, and by shaking 
often oxygenation, souring is hastened. A cloth should of 
course be tied over the top to keep out insects and dust. The 
jars should be set in the sun and whenever the fluid has worked 
clear strain off and leave it in a warm place until it is sharp as 
desired. When mother forms, new vinegar can be made by sim- 
ply adding sweetened water. Always use soft water, but if it 
is not available boil the water and set it in the sun a day or two. 

The following are some excellent recipes that can be adapted 
to different localities and seasons: 

Vinegar from Apple or Peach Parings. — Fill a jar half full 
of parings, add one-half teacup of molasses and fill up with 
water ; set in the sun and strain for use in about two weeks. 

Corn Vinegar. — Put one teacup shelled com and one tea- 
cup brown sugar or molasses in a jar. Fill up with water and 
set in the sun. This takes three weeks to make, but is one of the 
very best vinegars. 

Tomato Vinegar. — Mash one quart of ripe tomatoes to a 
pulp. Strain the juice and put in a jar with one teacup ful 
sugar or molasses. Fill the jar with soft water and set in the 
sun for two weeks. 

Yeast Vinegar. — Dissolve a half teacupful brown sugar in 
one pint warm' water and add a small yeast cake. Fill the jar 
with water. This will be ready for use in two weeks. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 127 

Alcohol Vinegar. — This is the least desirable of any for 
home use. It is made by using one part alcohol to four parts wa- 
ter. It is fermented with yeast as in the foregoing recipe or by 
the German process of filtering through beech shavings, but this 
is a laborious undertaking and not adapted to domestic pur- 
poses. 

Blackberry or Raspberry Vinegar. — Cover one quart berries 
with strong vinegar. Let stand two weeks. Then mash the ber- 
ries and strain the whole over one quart fresh berries. Let 
stand a week, then mash and strain again. To each quart of 
vinegar add one pound sugar, bring to the boiling point, skim 
and bottle while hot, using sound new corks. This furnishes a 
grateful acid on hot days, diluted with water and poured over 
cracked ice. It also makes a refreshing beverage for the sick. 



PRUNING THE APPLE 



BY FRANK CROWLEY. 

The first thing to do is to arm yourself with a good, sharp 
pruning knife. If pruning is done at the proper time and in the 
proper manner no other tools will be necessary, but if neglected, 
or too many main branches are allowed to grow, the saw will have 
to be used. In cutting off a branch the knife should follow the 
shoulder, which we notice at the junction of the branch to an- 
other, or to the main stem, and the surface of the cut should 
be no larger than the base of the branch removed. To make a 
cut of this kind, the knife must be drawn inward a little, care 
being taken not to cut the bark on the main stem. We often 
see a limb cut off with an outward stroke of the knife, leaving 
a sharp stub at the upper side of the cut which will require a year 
or two for the bark to grow over, or from which a new shoot 
may start. On the other hand, we frequently see the cut made 
too close to the main stem, causing a very large wound or peeling 
the bark from the top of the cut, or up the tree some distance. 
Either of these should be avoided. In removing a portion of a 
branch the proper way is to take the branch to be operated on 
in the left hand, below the place where the cut is to be made; 
place the edge of the knife on it directly opposite the base of 
the bud to be cut to, and then make a firm, quick, smooth draw- 
cut, sloping upwards so that the knife will come out on a level 
with the point of the bud. If we cut too close to the bud, so- 
as to remove some of the wood with which it is connected, the 
bud will die, or else make a very feeble growth, and the bud be- 
low it will take the lead. While if we cut too high the wood- will 
die down to the bud and make an unsightly stub if not cut oft' 
in after pruning. 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 129 

"Where the saw is used in cutting a heavy limb, first saw a 
little at the lowest part so that when you saw through from the 
top the weight of the branch will not peel or split off some of the 
bark from the main stem as it falls. Saw cuts should be trimmed 
smooth with the knife to make them heal more quickly. It is also 
a good plan to paint large cuts to prevent the wood from drying 
and cracking into the tree too much. 

In growing an orchard by irrigation we do not have to 
prune in summer to produce fruit, not to prune in winter to 
encourage growth of wood, as they do in the East. This we can 
see by the orchards already in bearing, that trees grow more 
rapidly, and that the same varieties will commence bearing in 
from one-half to two-thirds the time required in eastern locali- 
ties. This, I think, is mostly due to the fact that if the soil is 
kept uniformly moist the roots do not need to go so far nor so 
deep to obtain the food required and are settled down to business 
in less time. I think the best time to prune is just after the sap 
starts in the spring, in May or the fore part of June, as the 
wound will heal sooner and better at this time than at any other. 
If it is impossible to get at it at this time I believe I would prefer 
February or March. 

To give a tree the proper shape, pruning must be practiced 
from the time it is set in the nursery row through all the processes 
of culture until it has passed beyond all usefulness. But until 
it leaves the nursery and is given a place in the permanent plan- 
tation about all the pruning that is necessary is to keep all the 
suckers and limbs rubbed or cut off that come out below the place 
where the main head should start. Before being set in the ground 
any roots that have been bruised in the digging should be 
trimmed. After setting, the ground should be allowed to settle 
around the tree so that the knife can be used without loosening 
roots or having to hold it in the ground with one hand while you 
prune with the other. When you attack the tree cut off all the 
limbs on the main stem, if any remain, up to where you want 



130 IRRIGATION FRUIT G-ROWINO. 

to head the tree. I believe the majority of fruit growers in the 
West recommend a low-headed tree, say from twenty inches to 
three feet, and I think there are few who would choose a tree 
headed five or six feet from the ground. The only advantage of 
high-headed trees is that they are more easy to get around with 
a plow or other implements. A high-headed tree exposes more 
of the trunk to the hot rays of the sun, and will get too top-heavy 
to cope with the heavy winds which sometimes prevail. It also 
requires more time to get a tree up to that height and form a 
good, substantial head than Avith lower-headed trees. 

From what experience I have had in growing young trees 
in the nursery and pruning them when set in the orchard, I con- 
sider that the exact height of the liead should be governed by the 
particular tree in hand, and the branches chosen that are good 
and thrifty, and well set and well balanced. Be very particular 
to avoid leaving any forks in forming the foundation for the 
head of the tree, as these will split if too heavily loaded with 
fruit. But if impossible to balance the tree without leaving a 
forked branch, it can be made strong by taking two cross-limbs, 
one from each side of the fork, and twisting them together where 
they will grow fast and form a good brace ; two or three pairs of 
these could be fixed up along the branch and make it quite secure. 
If three limbs come out so as to balance well, they will be better 
than four for the first main branches. The leader, which should 
always be strong and in advance of others, should be clear of 
limbs for at least a foot above the first set of branches, when 
there should be another set, balancing like the first, and so on up 
as the tree grows, always bearing in mind that a limb never gets 
any farther from the ground at the base than it was when started, 
and that when the main branches get to measure several inches in 
diameter, they will crowd, if left only two inches apart along the 
stem, so that some will have to be removed, or the tree will be 
spoiled. Next, do not cut back the limbs, as is practiced in the 
East, and has been done a good deal in this country. In the East 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 131 

it is done to make the tree branch more ; but they branch entirely 
too much here, so if this system is practiced all the buds along 
the limb that would have made fruit spurs, or remained dormant, 
are forced and make a lot of cross-limbs that have to be cut out 
the next season ; so we lose not only all that growth, but that 
which we cut in the first place besides spoiling the shape of our 
tree by making a crook wherever we cut a limb back. 

A mistake which I have noticed several making, is to cut 
off the little bushy-looking spurs which grow along the main 
branches near the trunk, with a view of preventing cross-limbs 
in the center of the tree. In doing this you deprive the body and 
larger limbs of much protection from the sun, and at the same 
time destroy a great number of fruit spurs which will bear a year 
younger than most of those higher up on the limbs. Of course 
some of these would become water suckers if left ; but it is plenty 
of time to cut them off when they have developed into such. 



THE TREHS or DENVIIR 



W. G. M. STONE, DENVER, COLORADO. 

The purpose of these papers on "The trees of Denver" is to 
collect and put on record, for future reference, data relating to 
the progress our people are making in tree planting. 

The same as a year ago, this discussion will be confined to de- 
ciduous trees not indigenous to Colorado. The only deciduous 
trees native to Colorado, found suitable for shade, were the Cot- 
tonwood and box elder; but these are not satisfactory, and our 
citizens have ceased planting them. To supply their place they 
have been bringing trees of better grade from beyond the plains. 

The number of varieties thus introduced, as given last year, 
was fifty- three; but that list should be modified and increased. 
During the past summer quite a number of additional varieties 
have been observed, thus increasing it to sixty-six, as follows : 
Soft Maple. Weeping Mountain Ash. 

Sugar Maple. Black Locust. 

Norway Maple. Honey Locust (thorny.) 

Cut Leaf Maple. Honey Locust (thornless.) 

Sycamore Maple.* _ Clammy Locust. 

Japan Maple.** Hardy Catalpa. 

American Elm (three varieties). Tender Catalpa. 
Huntington Elm. American Linden. 

Red Elm. European Linden.* 

Scotch Elm.* Carolina Poplar. 

Cork Elm. Lombardy Poplar. 

"Weeping Elm. Silver Leaf Poplar. 

White Ash. Siberian Poplar. 

Balm of Gilead. Basket Willow, 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 



133 



White Birch. 

Black Birch. 

Pyramidal Birch. 

Canoe Birch.* 

Weeping Birch. 

White Oak. 

Red Oak. 

Burr Oak. 

Swamp Oak.* 

American Weeping Willow. 

European Weeping Willow. 

Laurel Leaf Willow. 

Green Ash. 

Blue Ash.* 

European Ash.* 

Weeping Ash.** 

Mountain Ash. 

Oak Leaf Mountain Ash. 



White Mulberry. 
Red Mulberry. 
Russian Mulberry. 
Horse Chestnut. 
Buckeye.* 
Black Walnut. 
Butternut.* 
Chestnut.** 
Hawthorn.* 
Sycamore. 
Hackberry. 
Wild Cherry. 
Coffeynut. 
Russian Olive. 
Tree of Heaven. 
Red Bud.* 
Persimmon.* 
Cucumber Tree.* 



Of the foregoing there are thirteen that, so far as I have 
observed, have but one representative ; these are marked with one 
star ; those having only two are marked with two stars. 

To one familiar with forests of the East it will be apparent 
that but few varieties remain without representation in Denver. 

Several of the new trees noticed during the year deserve 
some special mention. The Sycamore, Maple and Japan Maple 
enumerated may be seen in Fairmount cemetery. 

On the lawn of ex-Governor Grant is a pretty little tree 
bearing large, beautiful leaves. I have listed it as the Cucumber 
tree, believing it to belong to that branch of the magnolia family. 

The only Buckeye observed may be seen at the residence of 
William Davis, at the corner of Clay street and Thirty-second 
avenue, on the ''North Side." This particular tree has endured 
many hardships, proving it especially desirable in this climate, 



134 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

and it is singular that the Ohio Buckeye should not be better 
represented. 

One of the most puzzling trees met in my rambles stands at 
the corner of Stout and Twentieth streets, in the north corner 
of the High school lawn. Its girth is twenty-one inches. It is 
doubtless a member of the Ash family, but is not of the blue, 
white, green nor black varieties. To give it a place I have called 
it European Ash. 

A tree quite unique in character and local history is at the 
corner of Clay street and Thirty-ninth avenue, Highlands. It 
was set by Mr. Perrin, well known among the "old-timers," and 
twenty years ago was about seven inches in diameter. Its pres- 
ent girth is seventy-five inches. This tree has the peculiarity of 
holding its leaves fresh and green through the early frosts. The 
wood is tough and flexible, and when bent by snow recovers as 
soon as liberated. This tree is known as the Cork Elm ; it is more 
symmetrical and more attractive than the Huntington Elm; bet- 
ter limbed, with finer, richer foliage. About twenty years ago 
the owner, Mr. Douglas Washburn, was offered $100 by H. A. 
W. Tabor, and by other parties a larger sum, Avhich offers were 
refused. A few of our trees deserve more attention by our peo- 
ple. Several varieties are far too scarce. One of these is the 
Hard Maple, a tree scarcely second to the American Elm. Val- 
uable and beautiful as it is, there are comparatively few in Den- 
ver; and of these few it is important to note that a large per 
cent, is of the Norway species. This fact I have observed during 
the past summer. The Norway Maple and the American Sugar 
Maple so much resemble each other in almost every particular 
that it is difficult to distinguish between them. If, after the trees 
are in leaf, a bud be taken from the tip of a twig of the Norway 
and broken it will exude milk; the American Sugar Maple will 
not. Of these trees there ought to be hundreds instead of dozens. 

Just a word about the Catalpa. During the year this tree 
has received considerable attention in order to ascertain whether 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 135 

we have the hardy or tender variety, or both. By observing the 
blooming time it was found that some bloom early, others about 
a fortnight later, and the seeds confirm the fact that all our 
Catalpa are not the speciosa, which, in part at least, will account 
for winter killing spoken of a year ago. The early bloomers 
belong to the hardy variety. Another tree, of which we have too 
few, is the Black Walnut. It is sometimes asked if we have any. 
A few good specimens may be pointed out. At 1507 Grant ave- 
nue is one with a girth of twenty-three inches ; two at 1525 Sher- 
man, twenty-one and one-half and thirty-three inches. On the 
lawn of Mr. C. B. Kountze are three measuring twenty-five, 
twenty-eight and thirty-five inches. Of course, there are others, 
scattered over the city, but these are the largest I have seen. 
No tree in Denver seems healthier or more at home than the 
Black Walnut. 

The Linden, too, is not as much appreciated as it should be. 
It is too often regarded as a common sort of tree. In Europe 
it is a favorite. The finest avenue in Berlin is set with it and 
called "The Linden." The largest specimen observed is at 1300 
South Fourteenth street, having a girth of thirty-five inches, 
while another at 200 West Colfax measures thirty-one inches. It 
is healthy, grows rapidly and is a desirable tree for both street 
and lawn. It is a matter of surprise that the Horse Chestnut 
has received so little attention. There are very few in the city, 
yet when in bloom it is one of the most beautiful trees in Amer- 
ica, second only to the Magnolia. At Bushy Park, a few miles 
southwest of London, is a celebrated triple avenue, more than 
a mile in length, lined with Horse Chestnut, set by William III. 
about 230 years ago, and when in bloom the people of London 
1^ock to see one of the most delightful sights of the kind in the 
world. The largest one observed is at 1601 Sherman avenue, of 
twenty-six inches girth ; another at 1525 Sherman measures twen- 
ty-two and one-half inches. 

Among other trees entitled to more attention may be named 



136 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

the Thornless Honey Locust, Russian Olive, Chestnut and Butter- 
nut, all of which appear healthy and hardy, and promise good 
results if given a sufficient trial. While there is much to be said 
in this line, yet there are some features of the tree problem un- 
discussed which I desire to touch upon. 

"Whatever trees are found to grow successfully in Denver 
would thrive at all other points in the state adapted to decid- 
uous tree culture. Therefore, the forestry experiment station 
for Colorado, to a degree, is important. We are determining 
what trees are to be used in the future for shade, for ornament 
and for economic purposes. Every citizen, therefore, whether 
for himself or as the representative of any public board or com- 
mission, who plants a tree and gives it care, becomes a factor in 
this experiment work in forestry, for the benefit of the future. 
During the thirty years now past our people have expended 
money enough in deciduous trees from beyond the plains to con- 
stitute many a princely fortune. These trees have been brought 
by hundreds of thousands and planted in a strange land. They 
have been placed in high altitudes, in adverse conditions of 
aridity of both soil and atmosphere, and in peculiar extremes of 
diurnal temperature. In their native home they had an even 
temperature between day and night, but here all conditions are 
new and in many respects adverse. 

Now, in view of these facts, are we to presume that, of the 
sixty-six or more varieties already transferred to these strange 
environments, all will succeed? Is it not reasonable to expect 
that some may fail ? It is too soon, of course, to form fixed opin- 
ions. Trees are long lived, and it will take many years to dem- 
onstrate what results this climate will effect, to know what trees 
will ultimately succeed and what will not. Nature is very indul- 
gent; she adapts and adjusts and may do wonders to acclima- 
tize. On the whole, so far, the experiments have been sufficiently 
encouraging to confirm the hope of ultimate success as to most 
of the more desirable varieties. A few failures have occurred 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 137 

and some others may follow. A few years ago Hon. William 
N. Byers set some Hickory that failed; also several Pyramid 
Oaks which are also failing. I note some of the Mountain Ai> li 
are dying ; of what I do not know. The only Bine Ash notice 1 
is dying of the borers. The White Ash and Green Ash also are 
failing from the same cause. Five years ago there was no tree 
more promising to Colorado than the White Ash, and only two 
trees of the whole sixty-six varieties had more friends. Two 
years ago last spring where could have been found four rows of 
brighter, healthier looking trees than adorned the east and west 
lines of the capitol grounds'? On account of borers they are 
condemned and must be removed. The loss of the White Ash is 
a severe blow, and one we shall feel more and more as the years 
go by. There are a few other omens of evil, though far less 
alarming. The Elm is also found in some parts of the country 
and is doing some damage also to our Denver Elms. The Elm 
is also suffering from the Elm cluster louse. The Soft Maple 
and Black Locust have a mischievous leaf pest, causing their 
leaves to turn yellow and begin falling in midsummer. During 
the past season, late in August, I noticed the leaves of two or 
three Norway Maples with the borders faded out, as if they had 
been scalded. Further than this I have noted no trouble with 
our trees. Most of them are healthy and vigorous aiid promise 
excellent results. These diseases, however, are not confined to 
Colorado. Most, if not all, of them may be met with in states 
east of the plains ; hence we can scarcely charge them altogether 
to climatic influence. 

Before closing, there are two or three evils of another class 
which I desire to mention. In a way they are as detrimental as 
disease. One is the mistake some make of setting trees too large. 
People want shade quick and often plant trees from five to 
twelve inches in diameter. On many beautiful lawns such trees 
can be seen — trees with ill-shapen tops, also with bad defects in ' 
the bodies; these trees can never be beautiful. A large tree 



138 IRRlIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

taken up with most of its roots left in the ground and the re- 
mainder unmercifully lacerated, with the top nearly all cut away 
(necessarily) and transplanted, however well set and cared for, 
can never make a perfect tree. Its perfection and beauty can 
never be recovered. A young, thrifty tree, of two inches caliper, 
or even less, will be worth more in ten years than any one of the 
foregoing at any age. As a tree is not for to-morrow alone, the 
mistake of setting them so large ought not to be made. 

Another evil is the lack of pruning. On all our streets are 
ragged, ill-shapen, ill-balanced, unsightly trees. They have be- 
come so for want of proper pruning; and at the same time there 
are other trees just as unsightly because of too much trimming. 
There are hundreds of trees about the city ruined, hopelessly 
ruinedj by ignorant, reckless pruning. Trees should be pruned, 
but not butchered. They should be pruned by an intelligent for- 
ester, one who has been educated in the school of forestry, such as 
they have in Germany and such as are being started in this coun- 
try. A forester is to trees what a physician is to the people. An 
ignorant pruner is to a tree what a quack is to a patient. 

All in all, considering the many and great disadvantages our 
people have been compelled to work against, they have accom- 
plished wonders. They have brought nearly every kind of tree 
from the forests of the East, at great expense, and are demon- 
strating their adaptability to our state, and by another genera- 
tion the trees of Denver will be a glory to the city and a guide 
to the arboreal and forestry needs of the future. 



FARM DRAINAGi: 



BY E. S. ALLEN, LOVELAND, COLORADO. 

There are yet living in this community a goodly number of 
the "old-timers," those who came to Colorado in the early 60 's 
and located upon some of Uncle Sam's broad acres on the Big 
Thompson river, as ranches, for in those days farming in Colo- 
rado was unknown, at least but little had been done in that line 
to demonstrate the possibilities of the soil for crops, except na- 
tive hay and the abode of the settler was known as a "ranche" 
rather than a farm, a place for the raising of horses and cattle, 
which in reality was the principle occupation of the early settler 
in the valleys, and the bottom lands were sought by the locator as 
the land best suited for ranching purposes, the bluff or up-lands 
being considered fit only for grazing purposes, and was the grand 
domain of the herds. 

Irrigation in those days was certainly in its infancy, and as 
yet, with forty years of experience in the application of water 
to crops, we have something to learn, both as how best to apply, 
and to conserve our waters. 

Conditions are materially different now as compared with 
those early days when the agriculturist had at his command all 
the water he desired, and as the crops were largely the native 
hay, and these crops upon bottom lands, they were not stinted 
for water, in fact flooding for weeks at a time, without injury 
either to crop or land, was the common practice, and we are told 
that the Big Thompson river was often out of its banks, even 
from "bluff to bluff," inundating the whole farming commun- 
ity as it then existed, yet causing none of the conditions now so 
prevalent in almost every glade, draw and bottom lands, that of 
alkali. 



140 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

Drainage was unthoug-ht of in those days^ or even a ditch to 
carry off surplus water, for with the subsiding of the "flood" the 
water soon left the soil and was gone. 

It may seem strange to one unfamiliar with conditions as 
they then existed, that the application of so much water, either 
naturally or by artificial means, did little or no damage to the 
land, while in these latter days so much of our land is ruined by 
seepage and alkali, and the application of water in measured 
quantity, a necessity, if we would preserve the farm from utter 
ruin. 

The reason for this is obvious, when we study the conditions : 

First — rThe waters of the .river were comparatively pure, at 
least free from alkali salts now so common in almost all irrigation 
water, and. 

Secondly — The river floods, if covering to any considerable 
extent the farming lands, remained but for a short time, the bot- 
tom lands being loose sandy soil, the surplus water soon drained 
off or sank away, improving if anything the soil by the deposit 
of such fertilizing properties as water under these conditions 
usually carry. 

But the irrigation of the bluff or uplands, brought about an- 
other condition. 

The soil of our valleys for a considerable depth, are formed 
from the drifts and washings from the sand and shale rock of the 
adjacent mountains, carried out upon the plains during the ages 
past, and these soils contain a large quantity of mineral, to us 
commonly known as mineral salts, or alkali. 

These mineral salts are a potent factor in making our west- 
ern or arid lands so productive, and it is this that largely assists 
in keeping up the fertility of the soil, giving us year after year 
so uniform return, while our eastern brother must replenish the 
soil annually with fertilizers if he would preserve their product- 
iveness. So we may say in reality, that the so-called alkali is to 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 141 

the western farmer, a blessing, rather than an evil, provided it is 
properly applied, or rather regulated and controlled. 

The annual rainfall of the arid country being so very small, 
these mineral salts had gradually worked down into the soil, 
until irrigation became a part of the method of farming, without 
materially ajEfecting vegetation, and the bottom lands were peri- 
odically freed to a large extent of these salts, if any they con- 
tained by reason of the flooding and leaching, as the water re- 
ceded or sank into the earth. 

But this condition does not exist upon the bluff or uplands, 
under the system of irrigation. 

These lands are underlaid with a clay soil, very difficult for 
water to penetrate. The application of water to the fallow land, 
dissolves large quantities of these alkali salts, which for the most 
part are carried along the clay subsoil in solution to the lower 
levels, where we find the water making its way to the surface in 
almost every draw or gulch, in excessive quantities, carrying with 
it the salts or alkali, the water upon reaching the flats or bottoms 
being subjected to evaporation the alkali through filteration, to 
deposit upon the surface of the land, destroying vegetation and 
rendering the land unproductive. 

The formation of these alkali flats in the accumulation of 
alkali salts, upon the surface, is an evidence of the effect of 
nature to correct the faults of our crude system of irrigation. 
The salts are being carried off in the natural drainage of the 
country, but the process is very slow, too slow to affect any good 
result. The excess of seepage water and the salts themselves 
collect in these places on account of the inability of the soil to let 
them pass as rapidly as the excess of water is supplied. This 
suggests the necessity of artificial aid to assist in carrying off both 
water and alkali, fully as fast as the source of accmnulation. 

Perhaps I have digressed from the subject assigned me, that 
of "Farm Drainage," but I deemed a cursory reference to the 
causes that have brought about a necessity for drainage not out 



142 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

of place, as we may as well meet the conditions as they exist, and 
charge this necessity in a large part to the peculiar features of 
our country, and perhaps to an excessive use of water. 

We realize that under our system of irrigation, the whole 
country below the ditches, is charged with water, contrary to the 
conditions existing before the settlement of the state. That the 
water dissolves a vast amount of mineral salts, and in its outward 
movement to the lower levels carries with it in strong solution 
these salts or alkali, and whereever the water finds the surface, 
vegetation is destroyed, and the soil rendered unfit for agricul- 
tural purposes. 

But while seemingly destroyed, much of the land may be 
reclaimed by drainage. 

We have said that the so-called alkali is the strength of the 
soil, and rightly so, in limited quantity. The irrigation of our 
farms with water from lakes, containing as they do a large 
quantity of alkali, when properly applied to crops, do not pro- 
duce injury to land or crops, because with natural drainage the 
water sinks into the soil, with proper application, as fast as sup- 
plied, taking with it the greater part of the salts or alkali, a lim- 
ited quantity being retained by the soil, a fertilizer productive 
of good. 

But you may ask, "why the conditions as found upon some 
of our bottom lands to-day, where water has not been applied for 
many years, yet the surface of the soil is white with alkali." 
The answer must be, that water from some source is continually 
seeping from the higher lands in and upon these fiats, the nat- 
ural drainage defective, because of insufficient fall, the land 
soggy from long continued moisture, and the alkali is "strained 
out" into the soil rather than being carried away with the 
water and the action of the sun evaporates the water near the 
surface leaving the alkali deposit. 

In such cases, the artificial drain is needed to assist in draw- 
ing the water, and with it the alkali, downward through the soil 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 143 

into a drain, that will carry the water faster than the natural 
flow, or faster than it accumulates in the soil. In this way the 
greater part of the alkali is taken from the soil and as has been 
demonstrated in many instances, and the land reclaimed. A 
drain for this purpose in my judgment should be an under- 
ground or covered drain. 

We have seen attempts to drain land by the construction 
of ditches mostly the open ditch, that have proven of little or no 
value for the purposes intended, and I am not prepared tt say 
that in all cases land may be drained and reclaimed or at least 
without great expense, but the greater part of all of our side- 
hill lands, and those having considerable fall, may be reclaimed 
by properly constructed drains, and at reasonable expense. 

This brings up another important feature of the drainage 
question. That of cost. And will it pay. These are questions 
largely to be determined by the conditions in each particular 
case. There are some lands that may be drained by the con- 
struction of a single line of drain, others will require two or 
three, while some lands will require a net-work of drains, to suc- 
cessfully meet the conditions, that is, one main line, with laterals 
leading out in different directions as the "lay of the land" may 
require, and at stated distances apart, in order to thoroughly 
relieve the land of excess water as fast as it accumulates, and 
such system would to a large extent be controled by the character 
of the out-let, grade, etc., it being borne in mind that the main 
drain and the laterals as well, should be of sufficient size to 
never be entirely filled with water for if forced to run full, much 
of the drainage effect is destroyed, and the land will not prop-, 
erly exhaust itself of water. 

The cost of these drains will vary of course with the char- 
acter or kind of materials used, and number required. I have 
known land to be fairly well drained with a simple wooden box, 
and in many instances where the grade is heavy, such kinds of 
drains may be used with success, but it requires more care to put 



144 ' IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

in this kind upon an even and regular grade than some others, 
as they fill up more readily than tile, and of course are not as 
lasting. The tiling in my judgment is far preferable. The 
water will follow this character of material much better, find 
an inlet at every joint, of about two feet, is not so liable to fill 
up, and lasts when once put in. 

Another phase of the drainage question, is that of the ' ' Out- 
let. ' ' We recognize that there are many places requiring drain- 
age, where it will be difficult to obtain an out-let to the river, 
or other natural drain-way, with sufficient fall for a successful 
system of drainage, on account of the distance to reach a drain- 
way, or the passing through the lands of adjacent farmers 
which necessitates the acquiring of right-of-way and other ex- 
penses. But many large tracts of land may be drained by farm- 
ers joining in the construction of a main drain to a common 
out-let, and each connecting thereto at points most advantageous 
thus relieving the lands of its excess water, and this water may 
be put to beneficial use further down the line, thus in a measure 
compensating for the outlay. 

I have had but little practical experience in the line of 
"drainage" and this experience has not been carried to its full- 
est practical extent because the system commenced has not been 
completed, but as far as we have .gone it has proven satisfactory. 

On our farm, there existed a number of years since, a 
"swale" covering several acres, which had never on account of 
its wet, boggy, condition, been under plow. It was an eye-sore 
on the place, the dumping ground for all refuse of the farm, and 
of no productive value. 

"We looked up an outlet for a drain, put in a wooden box 
made of 2x6 's a three-sided box, open side down, extended this 
drain some twenty rods across the field to the bottom lands and 
river, drew off the excess water from the "swale," plowed the 
land in the spring with the rest of the farm and cropped it. 
The result was, but little difference in the condition of the crop 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 1^5 

from other parts of the field, except that it contained weeds in 
greater amount than the general crop. 

Another feature of the crop was the remarkable growth of 
the grain the entire length of the drain, and the exceptionally 
large heads of grain, showing to my mind, that the loose soil of 
the drain-ditch for so great a depth and the irrigation with per- 
fect drainage, removing the greater part of the alkali salts as 
this system does, it is just what our wet lands need. This drain 
was constructed through the lowest part of the "swale" and I 
may say it was not entirely sufficient, as water came into this 
land near the surface at the upper side of the ' ' swale, and a lat- 
eral was needed to take care of the water in that direction. 

But this system lasted for but a few years, and the land 
commenced going back to its former condition, and we found 
upon examination that the drain had not been properly laid, 
was uneven, sags and high places, the low places filled up, and 
water standing above the drain box and the box rotten and 
broken in. 

This system was taken up and sewer pipe put in its place, 
care being taken to put the same on an even grade, and this, 
so far as completed has proven satisfactory. 

There is no definite rule as to how the drain should be 
located in wet lands, to secure best results, "the-lay-of-the-land." 
and the grade, will largely determine the system required. If 
a sag or draw, it will require one kind, if a side hill another, and 
the flat or bottom land still another, and the ' ' in-flow ' ' of water 
in any of these cases will govern somewhat as to the require- 
ments. A line of drain through the lowest part of a draw, 
where the water enters or makes its appearance at the head of 
the draw, with a "Y" at the upper end to catch all water that 
comes into it, will suffice to control this case, while the side hill, 
where water seeps out for a long distance, would require a 
drain near and along the entire portion of land where the water 
makes its appearance, placed on good grade, and conducted, per- 



146 IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 

haps by several laterals to lower levels, the flat or bottom land, 
which is probably the most difficult to contend with, because 
sometimes the water does not come into this land until it has 
reached the bottom, having followed some shale rock or hard- 
pan, until the land is reached, when it seeps up from the bot- 
tom, and the .grade being slow, the alkali has for a long time been 
accumulating, ' ' puddling ' ' the soil until the natural drainage 
has been almost entirely cut off, and this character of land will 
require, no doubt, a net work of drains placed upon the best 
grade obtainable to affect desired results. 

In any of the systems mentioned, it has been my observa- 
tion that it is well to "cut off" as much as possible, rather than 
to ' ' go with ' ' the water. That is, where the water has a tendency 
to flow through a considerable width of ground, to put in a 
cross drain, conduct the water to a central line, and it may re- 
quire this in several places, rather than construct the drains in 
the direction the water is flowing ; in this way the water reaches 
the drain "broadside," naturally falls into it, and with reason- 
able grade, proceeds faster than it naturally was doing. 

These drains (cross-cut) should be placed at a good depth, 
to prevent water from passing below, to any considerable extent, 
and rising again in the soil before it has passed out of the land 
desired to be drained. 

While, as a rule, these bottom lands are loose and sandy, 
and should permit of water passing through them readily, the 
trouble has been lack of sufficient natural grade to conduct the 
water out of the soil as fast as it has come in. While it may 
have been sufficient at first, as the soil became charged with the 
alkali salts, slowly settling into the ground, it has become ' 'pud- 
dled" until but little water passes through it and none of the 
alkali and it remains saturated with water and alkali. 

I am aware that one of the difficult problems after the land 
has been draine<i is to get the land back into its former state 



IRRIGATION FRUIT GROWING. 147 

of productiveness, as in many instances the soil is so full of 
alkali salts that nothing will grow. 

Some experiments looking to this end have been made with 
fair success by flooding the land after deep plowing, with water, 
the drainage being good, the water dissolves the alkali and car- 
ries it through the soil and out through the drains, "washing it 
out," so to speak; then as soon as sufficiently drained or dry, 
to plow and crop, and sparingly irrigate. That is, not allow the 
water to ' ' stand ' ' upon the land. 

I have known instances where "wells" have been put in at 
stated distances, along the line of drain, that the surplus or 
overflow of water might immediately be run off into the wells 
and the drains, thus relieving the land of the excess amount that 
otherwise would of necessity be compelled to leech through the 
soil; this character of land, more than others, should never be 
required to "lay in water" after it is wet. 

Difficult as may seem the conditions to reclaim, I am firmly 
of the opinion that with a good system of drainage, the careful 
and economic use of water, the greater part of our seeped lands 
may be brought back to productiveness, removing the unsightly 
appearance of many of our farms, rendering them more profit- 
able, of greater value upon the market, at least from general 
appearance, and making us careful because of past experiences, 
in using no more water upon the farm than is actually necessary, 
thus accomplishing a double purpose, that of reclamation and 
conserving the valuable water. 



